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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175537">Reality Turner</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cluelesse/pseuds/Cluelesse'>Cluelesse</a>, <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallingunderground13/pseuds/Fallingunderground13'>Fallingunderground13</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lily and Leila: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Alternate Realities [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Shall We Date?: Obey Me!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossing Parallels, Developing Friendships, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, M/M, Magic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:28:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>37,030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29175537</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cluelesse/pseuds/Cluelesse, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallingunderground13/pseuds/Fallingunderground13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This Part follows the events after A Chance Meeting. Where Lily ends up in a different reality and meets with James and Leila and some of their demons. Leila creates an invention to be able to travel in between Lily's and Leila's realities. Later James is also able to travel in between realities and the three humans become great friends. They have a lot in common and a lot to talk about, after all!</p><p>Part 2 is written together by Fallingunderground13 and Cluelesse. We decided to extend Lily's adventures with Leila and James. If you've enjoyed our seperate stories, we hope you will enjoy this fun mashup too.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Beelzebub &amp; Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Belphegor (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s), Lucifer/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Main Character &amp; Solomon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Satan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Lily and Leila: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Alternate Realities [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. What Happened After</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The events that followed in both realities after Part 1: A Chance Meeting</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>
  <span>Lily walks through the portal with Barbatos and finds herself in the familiar yet odd room that belongs to him. She’s always wanted to ask him about the Escher design going on but has never gotten around to it. </span>
  <span>Her thoughts are immediately scattered when she sees a distraught, pacing Solomon leap towards her as he envelops her in his arms. She’s frozen at first, she’s never seen Solomon this way before, showing his emotions so openly in front of Barbatos. Then she finds herself returning his embrace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he pulls away to look into her eyes Lily feels a painful stab in her chest. She wonders which is more painful. The stare of the other Solomon who’s eyes were empty of emotion for her or this gaze, that had her pinned now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Barbatos saves her from the moment by clearing his throat. Lily can’t help but notice the look of disapproval the demon gives Solomon. She wonders if this isn’t the first time Barbatos has had to clean up one of Solomon’s messes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suggest you show more restraint the next time you call upon my powers for one of your experiments Solomon.” Barbatos says, dusting Lily’s shoulder and plucking a Kerberos hair from her.  Solomon grimaces at the sight of it. He’d been reckless and it wasn’t the first time he’d caused Lily problems with a failed experiment, but this was the first time he thought he might have lost her for good and it shook him to his core. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you well?” Solomon finally speaks, his eyes now roaming as if searching for injury. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily pulls away and gives him a smile. “I’m fine. And look, your spell wasn’t completely botched.” she says, showing off her clothes, proudly. They look brand new. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Solomon doesn’t seem interested in that at all though. Still wrapped up in his concern for her. Feeling uncomfortable, especially with Barbatos in attendance she takes another step back and smiles brightly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t need to worry. As you can see, I’m well. I met the most interesting people too!” she tells them, thinking fondly of James and Leila. She’s also feeling a bit sad because she’ll probably never see them again. Somehow they already felt like family to her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Barbatos puts a friendly but firm hand on the small of her back as he says, “Let’s save our stories for now, there are others who are worried about you.” He guides her out of the room and Solomon follows behind them. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Guiding them to some sort of common room in the Castle, she finds Lord Diavolo and all her demon brothers waiting for her. Mammon is the fastest and therefore the first to wrap her up in a smothering embrace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many damn times do I hafta tell ya not to help that idiot with his fucked up experiments?! Huh?! Ya dummy.” he says as he squishes her tighter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pats him consolingly on his back, “Can’t breathe.” she squeaks until he lets up on his embrace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It seems luck was on your side once more Solomon.” Lily hears Lucifer say as she’s crushed once more between the rest of the brothers. “I’ve spent the last couple hours thinking up all sorts of delightful punishments if she came back with a single scratch.” For once Solomon had no witty comebacks for Lucifer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did have a wonderful time.” Lily defends Solomon. She can’t help feeling sad, seeing him feeling guilty like that. And without him, she never would have had this experience! Solomon smiles slightly at her, almost invisible for the others to see. But she recognizes all his facial expressions: He’s glad she has forgiven him for this, already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Next time talk to me before you attempt such spells in my domain. Especially ones that might affect our favorite exchange student.” Lord Diavolo warns Solomon, trying to quell any arguments. There’s something else in the look he exchanges with Solomon.</span>
  <em>
    <span> More secrets.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lucifer scowls, noticing the exchange right away. “I’m sure you have an interesting story or two to tell, Lily.” Diavolo says, diverting his attention to the girl as she scrambles out from the clutches of her protective demons. “Why don’t you all stay for tea?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
Barbatos is serving them all Hellfire Rose tea. It’s a real treat that Lord Diavolo would let them all indulge in his favorite tea, especially since it can only be bought in small batches. Beel has already eaten the majority of the scones that were delivered to the table, before everybody has found a seat. Barbatos is smart though and keeps a separate tray of treats out of the gluttons reach, in the case that anyone, namely Lord Diavolo, wants seconds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lucifer grunts, a mixture of amusement and disdain when Lily explains how she appeared in the other reality on the back of Cerberus. She immediately launches into a rant about how the </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘other’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>Lucifer let them muzzle one of the heads. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doubtful a muzzle would work on a hound like Cerberus.” He says smugly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily nods in agreement and continues her indignant rant. “Apparently it was an enchanted muzzle! Specifically designed for the hungry head!” She doesn’t notice how almost everyone but Lucifer reacts surprised by the words ‘hungry head’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aren’t they all hungry?” Beelzebub wants to know as he tries to sneak a treat from the tray Barbatos held back. He’s not so lucky, as a shielding spell repels him from it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Heh. That’s not a bad idea! I say we muzzle all the heads.” Mammon laughs, it would make his life so much easier. But Lily shoots him a glare until he shuts up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway,” Lily continues her tale. “I was getting down from his back and there was this boy standing there holding a leash. His name is James I found out, and he was getting ready to take Cerberus for a walk.” She pauses and purses her lip. “Of course, I didn’t realize what was going on. I was very confused on where he came from, who he was..” Lily drifts on, thinking about how that meeting went and how funny it was, thinking back on it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh hello, Lily?” Mammon tries to get her attention. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Levi shrugs. “She’s zoned out again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh!” Lily ducks her chin, realizing she’s drifted in the middle of her story. “Sorry I was just thinking about James.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Solomon narrows his eyes when he hears Lily say this. Satan doesn’t miss a beat, he smiles wickedly as he asks Lily. “Hmm, what was this James like? Was he handsome?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily smiles at Satan, not understanding his motives for asking. “Oh yes, he’s very handsome. Tall, dark hair, sparkling green eyes.” she tells them. Satan’s smile broadens as Solomon’s face becomes more sour. “A great smile too. He seemed good-natured, like he can become friends with anyone in an instant.” she adds, smiling herself. “I think you’d all really like him!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmhm. Then what happened?” Solomon asks, his voice flat as he tries to coax her to continue on with her tale. He really doesn’t need to hear more about any tall, handsome man that Lily met.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I was confused why Lucifer would ask him to take Cerberus for a walk, especially since James seemed afraid of him, as soon as I took off the muzzle.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rightly so.” Lucifer says under his breath. Lily still hears him though and rolls her eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
“Well anyways, next this girl comes running up. Apparently she was afraid Cerberus might have tried to eat James. She was very angry at Lucifer for making James walk Cerberus and was going to yell at him later, she told us.” She pauses to giggle, remembering their expressions. Lucifer raises his eyebrows in disbelief. Someone was going to yell at </span>
  <b>him</b>
  <span>?! Lily doesn’t see his expression, or notice the snickering that goes through the room, however, and continues with her story. She explains how confused they all were. Then she looks at Solomon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then I found out this girl, her name is Leila, is James' cousin and also the </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘other’ </span>
  </em>
  <span>you’s granddaughter!” she tells Solomon specifically with round eyes. “You can imagine my shock, since I didn’t know I was in a different reality at that point….you don’t have any granddaughters I don’t know about, do you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Solomon smirks despite his mood and jokes. “No...but I do have a grandson..”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily’s mouth drops open. Solomon can’t keep up the charade when she looks so cute though and he immediately starts laughing. “No, of course I don’t. I would have told you if I had any living family.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Lily feels slightly embarrassed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So anyway!” Asmodeus interrupts. “I have a very important question. What did this Leila look like then?” He's very curious since he’s known some of Solomon children from the long ago past and they were all good looking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! Well she’s gorgeous! She has the same eyes as James, her hair is lighter though. She was also very tall. Well everyone seems to be compared to me.” she giggles. “They looked very similar to each other, but her features were more similar to Solomon’s I guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Interesting, interesting.” Asmodeus nods and turns to Solomon with a smirk. “Why don’t you have a gorgeous granddaughter like that in this reality?” He asks accusingly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Reasons.” Solomon shrugs. He’s not going to tell Asmodeus why. “But even if I had, I wouldn’t introduce her to </span>
  <b>you</b>
  <span>, Asmodeus.” There’s a salvo of laughter, following that comment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh...So mean.” Asmodeus complains, pouting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Again Lily turns to Solomon, “Not only did she look a bit like you, but she sounded like a very powerful sorceress. She was going to make me some enchanted ear plugs so I could talk to Cerberus. Or understand what he says? I’m not sure, it all went by so quick… But you know, she has the ability to talk to animals because she has a pact with Barbatos!” she explains excitedly. “I could tell the other you is very proud of her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone around the table seems to be surprised about the pact with Barbatos. Only Barbatos has a little smirk on his face as he refills Lord Diavolo’s tea cup. Solomon smiles but looks a little uncomfortable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Most likely she’s in the Devildom as a training for her apprentice-ship.” Solomon rubs his chin in thought. “But I, or in this case, he, wouldn’t bring her down here if she wasn’t powerful…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can't imagine a reality with two of those shady wizards.” Mammon grumbles and a lot of his brothers nod in agreement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t be so mean, Mammon.” Lily tells him sternly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was also going to introduce me to her cat.” Lily doesn’t want to leave that important part out, as she grins at Satan. He reacts as she had hoped: getting a big goofy smile on his face. “James said that he thinks that is the main reason the other Satan loves Leila so much.” She teases him and he blushes and rolls his eyes, hearing that. The others start teasing him immediately, until they notice he’s beginning to lose his patience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyway, sadly she didn’t have time to do that, or make the earplugs.” Lily says with slightly slumped shoulders. Everyone thinks she’s sad about the enchanted ear plugs, but mostly she’s sad that she won’t see Leila again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I can probably make something like that for you.” Solomon says. If his counterpart's granddaughter can, then he’s sure he can as well.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh! But she did enchant my headset on my D.D.D.” she says, handing them over to Solomon to inspect having just remembered. “Here, you can look at it. But don’t plug them in! She said it works only for about two hours, from the moment they are plugged in and I want to use them when I can play with Cerberus.” Solomon nods and promises not to use them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
After that stern warning, Lily continues on with her tale. Lucifer was disgusted by the very idea of three humans riding around on his demon hound as if he was some prized pony and equally disgusted by the idea of a dog park. As if Cerberus was an ordinary dog. Lord Diavolo’s eyes did get a mischievous glimmer, however. Lily suspects that soon her own reality might have a dog park as well...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then everything became very upsetting when the other Solomon showed up looking for Leila. He didn’t even look at me…” Her face gets momentarily very sad, but she fixes herself up quickly. But everyone had already seen her expression. “Of course that was because he didn’t even know me and at first I thought it was some horrible result of the botched experiment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You met the other me?” Solomon asks, looking a bit paler than usual. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmhm.” Lily says, feeling a little uncomfortable. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mammon crosses his arms, unimpressed. “Oh yeah? What was this other Solomon like, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily shrugs. “Um..different but the same?” she says, not really wanting to talk about Solomon from any reality right then. “He loves his granddaughter. I could tell right away. But anyway… As you can expect I was feeling very distraught and then Mammon showed up, because he was very worried about James,” she pauses and looks at her Mammon. “The ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>other’</span>
  </em>
  <span> you is very sweet too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Mammon blushes and looks away. “I ain’t sweet! I don’t care what reality I’m in!” he grumbles. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Once Mammon didn’t recognize me either I became even more upset, but then he sensed the pact mark of the Avatar of Greed on my hand and eventually the </span>
  <em>
    <span>‘other’</span>
  </em>
  <span> Solomon figured everything out. Not much longer after that, Barbatos arrived to bring me back.” she said, finishing her story. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you meet any of the rest of our doubles?” Belphegor asks her lazily, his chin propped up on his hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily shakes her head. “No I didn’t get the chance.” then she giggles, remembering what the other Mammon had said. “The ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>other</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Mammon told me that he had his hands full with James and Leila though, especially because of Leila and her mates. Which apparently is both you and Satan.” Lily giggles again, as she tells this to Belphie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Belphie scoffs and Satan looks at his brother with a glare. “Like I’d share a mate with him.” they both end up saying at the same time. They launch into a discussion about how, in the other reality, they would probably sabotage each other for the favor of Leila and Lily blinks at them in surprise. Are they fighting over a girl they never even met? Suddenly she understands what Mammon meant with having his hands full with them and she giggles.</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<b>Back in ‘</b>
  <b>
    <em>Another</em>
  </b>
  <b>’ Reality.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lucifer is waiting for them in the Garden when Leila, James and Mammon come riding up to the House on Cerberus’ back. Solomon had opted to teleport himself back to Purgatory Hall. He wants to have a talk with Barbatos about this first and then will meet everyone back in the House of Lamentation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lucifer has an amused look on his face as he watches them approach. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mammon you can stop crushing me now.” James laughs but is kinda serious, ouch, he thinks Mammon bruised some of his ribs for sure. Riding in the middle, Mammon had basically crushed James holding on to him for dear life. For James' protection he had insisted of course. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>James smiles when he sees Lucifer, his earlier irritation with his lover, long gone. Lucifer beams at James proudly. “I knew you’d manage. You always seem to charm others into helping you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila doesn’t quite feel as forgiving. But this time she decides not to say anything, she can tell how happy James is right now and she doesn’t want to bring down his mood even if she does think he’s being an idiot. She wishes he had a firmer hand with these demons, but that just wouldn’t be her James, he’s always been so easy going. They have been learning quickly that what they may have gotten away with before, won’t fly with her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve a story to tell everyone, Lucifer.” James tells him with a wide smile. “You’re not going to believe it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ya can say that again.” Mammon adds, throwing his hands up. “I woulda told ya you were crazy if I hadn’t seen her myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Her?” Lucifer inquires with a quirked brow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s tell everyone at the same time,” Leila interrupts. “After I’ve cleaned up.” she adds with a wrinkled nose. Shado was NOT going to be happy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
After having cast a cleansing spell over herself, having showered for good measure and making apologies to Shado for at least a half hour, Shado is finally inclined to forgive her again. She takes him downstairs to the common room, where Mammon and James are still excitedly telling the rest of the family about this afternoon. It looks like everyone finds it quite hard to believe. It doesn’t surprise her that they couldn’t wait for her before telling everyone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, you’re saying that this Lily tamed Cerberus like he was a pup?” Lucifer finds that hard to believe. He wants James to get along with his hound, so that he will at least obey James, but he never expects Cerberus to be tame like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like she could talk to him, like Leila can.” James nods. “Only Leila is firmer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m more of a cat-person.” Leila nods, cuddling with Shado, who sits purring on her lap. “I don’t feel like being cute with Cerberus, if he’s not nice to James. But yeah, Cerberus was like putty in her hands, it was amazing! She has a gift with animals.” She beams, telling that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I find that very hard to believe…” Lucifer more likely doesn’t </span>
  <b>want</b>
  <span> to believe it. But the rest of the brothers except for Mammon don’t really believe it either. To their knowledge, Cerberus is a monster. At least in this reality, he is.</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
Until Barbatos arrives with Solomon again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Solomon! Tell them we’re not crazy.” James says.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you see this mystery girl Barbatos?” Lucifer asks, it’s not that he doesn’t believe them, it’s just that any number of explanations would make more sense. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did not have the pleasure of meeting her in person, no. I knew of her arrival, and I knew another version of myself would take her back where she belonged and so I stayed away.” Barbatos explains, as he confirms their story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone is quiet for a while, as they absorb that information and the implications. Solomon and Barbatos launch into a series of explanations, Barbatos taking the lead since it’s more his area of expertise. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What will it mean for James and Lily, now that they have met?” Leila asks, part curiously, part worried. “Since he felt some kind of shock when they touched. Nothing bad will happen, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Solomon and Barbatos look at each other. “While they are not the same person, it should be safe for them. However they may have a shared fate, which is why that reaction might have occurred. It’s probably safer if they don’t see each other again.” Barbatos explains carefully. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>James feels a bit bummed by this news. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But there aren’t any consequences like that with me meeting her?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, that’s not likely.” Solomon tells her comfortingly, but looks at her suspiciously. “Don’t worry… You don’t exist in her reality, due to the fact that my counterpart doesn’t have a family.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila just nods and can barely leave the smile of her face, making everyone look at her with surprise. Is she glad she doesn’t exist?</span>
</p><p>
  <span><br/>
Later, Leila is back in her room. This was sure an interesting day. She feels she wants to talk more with Lily. She feels a connection with her, almost like she does with James. Because they are the same, in a way? She has a feeling of missing the strange girl already. Weird. But what isn’t weird about her life...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She takes off her locket from her neck and clasps it open: in it is one single long lilac-colored hair. From Lily. She found it on Cerberus, after Lily said goodbye to the hound and for some reason, Leila decided to keep it. No. Not ‘for some reason’. Leila knows exactly the reason. She wants to see Lily again and this hair will help her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She walks to her potions workbench and grabs a tube to keep Lily’s hair safe after she corks it inside. She places it next to her jar with Kerberos fur. Then she collects all her spellcrafting books and sprawls them and herself out on her bed: If she’s going to do this, she’s going to do it perfectly. She’s not going to get herself trapped inside another dimension. She’s going to create a way to travel back and forth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Smiling excitedly, she dives into her books. Ignoring Belphegor and Satan wanting attention. Well, for as long as she can manage. They’re very persistent.</span>
</p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Surprise Visit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Leila visits Lily's Reality for the first time.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Just a quick FYI: This story is full of spoilers for both of our stories in regards to plots and things that happen with our characters that are not necessarily part of the OM lessons. </p><p>If you hate being spoiled on things we recommend that you<br/>1. Have completed all current lessons of OM<br/>2. Have read most of Cluelesse's series about Leila and James<br/>3. It's impossible to avoid being spoiled on some things about Lily's story since most of this series is dealing with stuff I haven't even written about yet. </p><p>OK warning over. Please enjoy =D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p><b>It’s a few weeks later…<br/></b> <b><br/></b>Leila sits on her bed in her room. Feeling so excited! Today is the day! She’s certain it will work. She has thought about everything. She has spelled her door, so nobody will enter while she’s away. She has her D.D.D. in her hand and starts typing a message. Just for extra insurance.</p><p>
  <b>Barbatos &lt;&gt; Leila</b>
</p><p><b>&gt; Leila:</b> Barbatos.<br/><b>&gt; Leila:</b> I will be away for a bit.<br/><b>&gt; Leila:</b> Please come look for me, if I’m not back in three hours.<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> Certainly.<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> Are you sure about this, Leila?</p><p><em> Ugh he knows </em>, she thinks. Of course he does, being the Duke of Time. Well, he can’t stop her!</p><p><b>&gt; Leila:</b> I’m sure. I’ll see you later.<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> Of course.</p><p>It’s good to know he’s there for back-up, she decides, while taking the little pendant that looks like an hourglass in her hand. In it is a lilac-colored sand. Infused with Lily’s hair and Kerberos fur. She’ll have to apologize to Lily about the weirdness of keeping her hair. It’s not something non-magical people understand so easily, maybe. Though if she’s really hanging out with Solomon as much as Leila suspects, she should be used to some strange things. She chuckles. She pats her pocket one last time to see if she hasn’t forgotten her gift and turns the hourglass twice.</p><p>There’s a flash and she feels herself being transported. The next moment she’s on her bed in the attic again. Though it looks different now. Darker. And her bed is less comfortable. It must have worked! She giggles excitedly.</p><p>“What the hell…?” She hears a slow familiar voice asking grumpily and something moves beneath her! </p><p>Oh no! She didn’t think of everything! She tries to scramble off the body quickly, but two strong hands grab her waist and keep her where she is. On top of Lily’s reality of Belphegor!</p><p>“Who are you?” He asks her, ignoring her struggle to get off. “How did you get here, sitting on me like this?” She hears the familiar mischievous tone in his voice and even if she can’t see him well enough in the dark, she can just imagine his smirk. She sees his eyes glow purple in the dark, checking her out. So unfair that demons can do that!</p><p>“I’m, uh… Looking for Lily…”</p><p>“Are you now…”</p><p>“So, please let me go.” She says firmly. She’s NOT going to be teased by Lily’s Belphegor.</p><p>“You say please, but it doesn’t sound like you’re asking…” He states and he’s right. It would have been a command for her own Belphegor. “I think I’m going to keep you here, you’re cute.” He rolls to his side, with her firmly in his arms and now she’s facing him up close: Yes, he’s definitely wearing his wicked smirk right now. “I wonder what it’s like kissing you…?” He says teasingly, coming too close to her face!</p><p>“Nuh-uh! No way!” She shouts and instinctively casts her forcefield around her, repelling him instantly from her body.</p><p>“Ack! What?!” He tumbles from the bed on the opposite side. Leila isn’t waiting for him to get his bearings and flees, red-faced.</p><p>She rushes out of the attic and quickly casts a locking spell on the door for good measure. Her own Belphegor will break through that spell within a few minutes, but it will give her a head start, at least. She needs to find Lily! Hopefully she’s in James' room!</p><p><br/>Lily is sitting in her room doing homework. Or at least, she’s trying to but she can’t seem to concentrate. Things are a mess in the Devildom as usual but something seems different this year. She can’t place her finger on it yet but she’s worried and she doesn’t feel like she has anyone here she can really talk to about these things. James has Leila to talk to and she finds herself wishing she had her own Leila right about now.</p><p>She’s pulled from her thoughts when her D.D.D. starts pinging like mad. It’s a spy chat and she opens it immediately, wondering what’s going on and why they’re keeping it from her. </p><p>
  <b>The Demon Brothers (7)</b>
</p><p><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> There’s a girl in the House.<br/><b>&lt; Satan:</b> You only noticed that now?<br/><b>&lt; Satan:</b> You really are slow.</p><p>Several Laughing-Demon stickers.</p><p><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> Very funny. <b>(Rolling-Eyes-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> She was suddenly sitting on top of me out of nowhere, while I was sleeping in the attic.<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Ooh! Lucky you! <b>(Demon-Blowing-Kiss sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> Yeah. She’s pretty cute.<br/><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> Anyway, from the description Lily gave us, I think she might be that girl she met in that other reality.</p><p>What? Lily looks wide eyed to her screen. Is he saying Leila is here? She feels a rush of excitement going through her. Could that really be? She tries her best not to get her hopes up in case they are just being idiots again.</p><p><b>&gt; Lucifer:</b> Don’t be ridiculous. <br/><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> Yeah. You must have dreamed it.<br/><b>&lt; Leviathan:</b> LOLOL!<br/><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> Well, this ‘dream’ girl locked me up in the attic just now.<br/><b>&gt; Lucifer: (Alarmed-Demon sticker)<br/></b><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> I’m still trying to figure out which spell she used.<br/><b>&lt; Satan:</b> Really? So she might actually be Solomon’s kid?<br/><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> <b>(Shocked-Demon sticker)<br/></b><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> Don’t tell Lily about this.<br/><b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> When I’m out, let’s hunt her. I have a score to settle…</p><p>“Ugh, Belphie!” Lily mumbles annoyed. “Don’t be so mean!” </p><p><b>&gt; Lucifer:</b> I’d like to have a word with her as well.<br/><b>&lt; Beelzebub:</b> I’ll stake-out in the kitchen next to Lily’s room.</p><p>It looks like her demons are all excited to find Leila. And Lucifer basically gave them his permission! Lily knows she can’t come to her rescue, as she’s not supposed to know anything about this chat. But she will stand ready to stop them when she sees them. Determined she stands up and unlocks her door quietly. Then all she can do is wait until Leila arrives.</p><p>
  <br/>
  <br/>
</p><p>“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” Leila curses herself, while fleeing down the spiral staircase. Upstairs she hears Belphegor curse. He just found out he’s locked in. </p><p>Why didn’t she think about Belphegor sleeping in the attic? James told her about that on her first day! Of course Lily’s Belphegor is doing that too! And why did he try to kiss her? He didn’t even know her name! Ugh! It’s a good thing she knows how to defend herself!</p><p>She sneaks through the House of Lamentation in the direction of James' room. Which should be Lily’s room. In theory. If only she had more time before, to ask her about these things. Let’s hope she doesn’t run into any more of Lily’s demons…</p><p>She’s almost reached Lily’s room. <em> Please be home, please be home. </em> She thinks. So far it was a good idea to take a detour and avoid the hallway where all the demon brothers have their rooms. She can hear them all over the House now, though. They’re looking for her! Or hunting her? Of course they are! They’re demons and not James demons. No reason for them to respect her. She should have thought about that too.</p><p>Well, no matter. If they’re like James’ demons, she can handle them too. She chuckles. She’s not afraid of them anymore, as long as they didn’t drink Gold Hellfire Newt Syrup. But she doesn’t trust them either.</p><p><br/>“There ya are!” She startles when she hears Mammon’s familiar voice. </p><p>Ugh! She almost made it! Almost. Lily’s room is just over there. But Mammon is so fast and already in front of her. In between her and Lily’s room. Should she shout for Lily? But what if she isn’t home and the others come to her shouting instead? </p><p>“Ya got some nerve, human!” Mammon stalks her back into a corner. “To appear in a demon’s den, like that?” He reaches out to grab her, but she’s already cast her force-field around herself. He can’t touch her. He’s surprised by that, but still keeps her cornered.<br/><br/></p><p>Lily has her ear pressed to her door, her hand on the handle. She can hear Mammon talking to someone but she can’t tell if it is Leila or not. She feels anxious not knowing if she should step out to intervene yet. She could pretend to get a glass of water from the kitchen...trying to be patient she decides to wait just a bit longer. So far it doesn’t sound like any of the others are around yet. Beelzebub probably already forgot all about it, while browsing the fridge. Lily giggles despite the circumstances.<br/><br/></p><p><em> What should I do? </em> Leila thinks. <em> I don’t want to make enemies out of all of them. </em>She wants to visit Lily more often, after all. And preferably without being hunted down each time like she’s the enemy or some kind of prey.</p><p>“Aren’t ya gonna say somethin’?” </p><p>“Yes, sorry.” She smiles her sweetest, most beautiful smile at him and immediately sees it working: He’s starting to blush. “I just wanted to visit my friend Lily. But I had no way to tell her this. So that’s why I came unannounced…”</p><p>“Oh...Uh…” Mammon stutters. </p><p>“You will let me go to her, right Mammon?” She blinks her eyes pleadingly, making him blush even more. “Please? I think Lily would really love to see me…”</p><p>Mammon can sense the pact this girl has with his counterpart and feels defenseless against the bond she shares with him. It’s not his pact. Yet, this girl somehow has so much power that it still influences him? He knows how the ‘<em> other </em>’ him must feel about this girl, because it’s the same thing he feels for Lily and he knows his mistress would love to see her, she’s been pining for them ever since she came back.</p><p>“Howd’ya do that?” He growls, as he gestures to her to come with him. He’s walking towards Lily’s room! Leila beams at him, making him blush even more. </p><p>“Do what?”</p><p>“Influence me, via your pact with the other…” He growls annoyed, as he steps with her into Lily’s room and closes the door behind him. His brothers will never let him live this down!</p><p>But she doesn’t hear him anymore. Suddenly Mammon is in the middle of a flurry of girls, excitedly screaming and laughing with each other, and there's a lot of long lilac and golden hair in his vision for several minutes, until they’re both tired from that silly dance. He laughs. Okay, this human really is his Lily’s friend. He’ll protect her too from his brothers.<br/><br/></p><p>“Oi! Am I invisible or what?!” Mammon finally interjects, tired of being ignored. But he has a hard time hiding his smile behind his scowl. Lily is so happy!</p><p>“Thank you Mammon, for bringing her safely to me.” Lily let’s go of Leila’s hand and catches her breath, her smile still wide. She throws her arms around Mammon's waist in a tight hug. “Leila,” she giggles. “I’d like you to officially meet ‘<em> my </em>’ Mammon. He’s my first and best demon.” </p><p>“Really?” Leila beams her smile once more. “Mammon is my first and best demon too!”</p><p>Mammon beams proudly until Lily adds, “We’re still working on his tsundere ways.” she says in a hushed tone that he can still clearly hear. </p><p>Leila giggles at that. “My Mammon can’t hide his feelings from me. We have the strongest bond, so he just gave up on it with me.” She ‘whispers’ back with a mischievous glint in her eyes.</p><p>“Ugh. Get off.” he complains, pushing Lily away while blushing. Despite the fact that Lily’s Mammon seems a tad bit rougher than the one she’s used to, Leila can still tell he has the same heart and adores Lily.</p><p>Lily has a million questions for Leila but before she can ask any of them they hear a stampede of feet heading towards her room. “Mammon don’t let them in!” Lily commands him. She’s not sure how all of them will react and while she’s pretty sure Leila can handle herself, she doesn’t want her room destroyed...again.</p><p><br/>“Lily, open your door. You know how I feel about uninvited guests.” Lucifer demands from outside. </p><p>“Just kick it down.” Lily shakes her head, hearing Belphegor’s impatient voice. Apparently he doesn’t like it, that there’s yet another door in the way of the girl he found in the attic, and himself.</p><p>“I don’t want any of you to be mean to her!” Lily says firmly. Leila places her hand on Lily’s shoulder, she didn’t want to cause her any issues with her demons. </p><p>“Thank you, Lily, but don’t worry. I can cast a spell over the doorway if you want to open the door and talk to them.” Leila tells her. Lily nods her head and waits for Leila to finish casting her barrier spell around the doorway. When it’s done, she gives Mammon the signal to open the door. They immediately all try to get inside and start shouting, annoyed that there’s just another barrier in their way again! What the hell is happening in their House?!</p><p>“Let us in.” Lucifer demands, but Leila just raises her eyebrows. Does he really think he can order her around like that? Lucifer narrows his eyes to the strange girl that dares to challenge him. He can’t detect any fear from her. Impossible. Is she that confident that her barrier will hold?</p><p>“Why does Mammon get to be inside?! I want to meet Solomon’s granddaughter toooo!” they hear Asmo whining. He’s straining on his tippy toes to try to see over his taller brothers in the front.</p><p>“‘Cause I’m her first!” Mammon declares proudly, crossing his arms, safe from his brothers behind Leila’s barrier. </p><p>“And you were nice to me.” Leila adds quietly so the others won’t hear, beaming at him. Making him blush again. <em> She should stop doing that. </em> He thinks to himself, annoyed that he can’t help himself from blushing.</p><p>Satan rolls his eyes, “Not that again.” he says with much distaste. Satan and Belphegor have both pushed to the front of the group crowding the door. They want to get a good look at the girl whom their other selves are supposedly in love with. So much that they are even willing to share? That’s too hard to believe.</p><p>Leila really tries her best to not get flustered under their staring eyes. They’re exactly the same intensity from her own Belphegor and Satan and it’s really confusing for her. <em> They’re not my mates, they’re strangers. </em> She tells herself sternly. <em> It’s the first day in this Devildom and I don’t trust any demons! </em></p><p>Lucifer pushes them aside and attempts to bring down Leila’s ward with no effect, much to his annoyance. “Lily.” Lucifer is giving her one of those looks, but he can’t intimidate her anymore. </p><p><br/>“I’m not allowing any of you to hurt Leila.” she tells them all.</p><p>Asmo gasps. “Who said anything about hurting anyone? You told us she’s gorgeous, so naturally I just want a good look at her.”</p><p>“It’s okay Lily, I can take care of myself, I promise.” Leila tries to assure her friend. “I only have four pacts, but I can make them respect me, just like James’ demons.” There is some scoffing about that from Lily’s demons, but Lily can sense that they’re curious about her claim, anyway.</p><p>“Okay...we will come out in a bit. As long as you all promise to behave yourselves, we can meet in the common room.” Lily tells them, doing her best to be firm for Leila’s sake.</p><p>“Are ya sure about this?” Mammon asks. </p><p>“Best to get it over with.” Lily sighs. She’s feeling a bit selfish, she doesn’t know how long Leila will be able to remain here, she hasn’t had a chance to ask her anything at all yet. She firmly makes up her mind that she’ll only give them a small window of their time. </p><p><br/>Mammon escorts them to the common room. Clearly showing off to his brothers. No one has sat down yet, everyone is milling about the common room waiting for them to arrive. Asmo is about to reach out to Leila when Lily commands, “No touching Leila, unless she gives you permission!” She chides Asmo but the command is for all of them. She gives Leila an apologetic look.</p><p>”Don’t worry, Lily.” Leila links her arm with her and sends Asmodeus her sunshine smile, making him smile back at her genuinely. “Asmodeus won’t touch me, unless he wants a taste of the special curse I designed for my Asmo.”</p><p>“Curse?” Asmodeus asks, worried for his counterpart for some reason.</p><p>“Oh yeah.” She gives him another radiant smile. “One that breaks out his skin if he does anything I don’t like. Like posting pictures of me online, rummaging in my closet and ruining my clothes, touching me in inappropriate places.... And only I know how to undo it.” She giggles and winks at Asmodeus' horrified expression. “He adores me, as you can imagine…”</p><p>Asmo lets out a horrified gasp, “That’s worse than what Lily did to me when she first arrived!” he pouts and steps back, giving the girls space. Leila just gives Lily an inquisitive look.</p><p>“Uh... I might have dyed his hair seaweed green…” Lily whispers to Leila, a glint of mischief in her eyes, “he completely deserved it though.” she giggles.</p><p>“I bet he did.” Leila whispers back with a giggle. “I have to remember that one…”</p><p>“But we love each other now, don’t we Lily?! You’d never allow something so cruel to happen to me right?” Asmo is ignored though as the girls become distracted by Belphegor, who has made his way over.</p><p>Belphegor stops behind Lily who’s now standing opposite from Leila. Slouching, he drapes his whole body over Lily, his chin resting on top of her head as he looks at Leila. A smirk twitches at the corner of his mouth, as he sees an expression of hurt flash over her features. But only for a moment, when she reminds herself that even if he looks like her Belphie, it’s Lily’s Belphegor. <em> So she really is involved with my counterpart? Interesting. </em>He thinks. “Hmm. You’re even cuter than I first thought. But just because you’re cute and Lily’s friend, doesn’t mean we take kindly to intruders.”</p><p>“You don’t say?” Leila mocks, remembering how she had to flee from him. “Why did you try to kiss me then?” She accuses him.</p><p>“Why did you land on top of me in the attic.” He counters with a shrug, but he’s slightly blushing for being outed. “I just made use of the situation.” Lily is not happy with the way Belphegor is talking to her friend, she gives Leila an apologetic look even though she’s easily holding her own against him. </p><p>“The attic is my room in my reality.” Leila answers him. “I admit that I didn’t think about the fact that Lily’s Belphegor could be napping in there.”</p><p>“Wait, wait!” Asmodeus shouts. “Back up a bit… You tried to kiss her?!”</p><p>“Of course. She’s cute and I had her locked in my arms…”</p><p>“So why did you let her escape?” For some reason Satan feels annoyed that Belphegor did this. <em> What is it with this girl? Why should he care? </em></p><p>“I didn’t ‘let her escape’, she just did.” Belphegor refuses to tell about how she was able to blast him away from her. “And then she locked me in.”</p><p><br/>Lily can’t really blame her demons for being alarmed by Leila’s sudden appearance and the extent of her magical power she’s already displayed in such a short time, but she’s really surprised that Belphegor tried to kiss Leila. She knew his counterpart was her mate but did this mean that her Belphegor and Satan would also feel attracted to Leila? She can’t imagine Leila or her real mates would appreciate it, if that’s the case. Seeing Leila’s angry flashing eyes when she looks at Belphegor is all she needs to know.</p><p>Lily tries to step away but Belphegor tightens his arms around her shoulders. She rolls her eyes, she’s really not a big fan of his clingy possessive act. This time she can’t tell if he’s doing it because he’s jealous of her new friendship with Leila or because he’s just trying to provoke Leila. She also has noticed Leila’s reaction to it and so she twists herself around to face him.<br/><br/>“Belphie, please don’t be mean to my friend. I really like her.” she tells him, looking up at him with her large expressive eyes. Belphegor stares into Lily’s eyes, searching them. “Fine.” he whispers and rolls his eyes before kissing her forehead and then walking over to the nearest couch where he pretends to nap. But he’s not really fooling anyone as he peeks out at Leila, still curious. </p><p>“Everyone this is Leila, the girl I told you about from the other reality that Solomon accidentally sent me to all those weeks ago. In that reality she’s Solomon’s granddaughter.” Lily says proudly, finally being able to make introductions.</p><p>Now Satan is standing between Lily and Leila, ever polite he offers Leila a hand in greeting. “It’s intriguing to meet someone from another reality, tell us, how did you manage it?”</p><p>“Yes, I’d like to know that too.” Lucifer says, his arms crossed. He does not like the idea of people just literally dropping in unannounced. No matter if they’re Lily’s friend or not. Solomon does that already too often.</p><p>Leila accepts Satan’s hand with a beaming smile. To his surprise, her smile makes him feel strange. He makes sure she doesn’t notice it. He can’t lose his head over a girl from another reality. He’s not Leviathan!</p><p>Leila is glad with Satan’s first impression. At least he is still a gentleman to her! But she has to disappoint him. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to reveal that.”</p><p>“And why is that?” Satan narrows his eyes, holding her hand in a tighter grip and looking suddenly a lot less friendly. But Leila knows how he is. She isn’t going to be intimidated by his temper, because she has one of her own. Her eyes flash angrily to his sudden change of behaviour and Satan can’t help being intrigued: She’s not scared of his threat?</p><p>“Because Barbatos and Solomon told us that it isn’t a good idea that people just cross over realities freely, like it’s a vacation, and meet up with their counterparts.” She answers him with a shrug, taking her hand back. <br/><br/><br/>“Quite right.” Lucifer confirms impatiently. “So why did you think you could do just that?”</p><p>To his annoyance, this girl isn’t impressed by him at all. <em> Typical for a child of Solomon. </em> He thinks. <em> She must be a pain for my counterpart. </em> “The only reason I can do that without consequences, is because I’m sure I don’t exist in this reality. Lily’s Solomon doesn’t have a granddaughter.” She looks to Lily for confirmation and is relieved that she nods.<br/><br/>“You can still tell us a little about what you did, right?” Leviathan asks. “This is so interesting! It’s like that anime that is currently running at 3.00 in the morning where…”</p><p>Leila giggles, hearing Lily’s version of Leviathan launching into one of his stories. “Let’s just say I invented a reality-turner. A magical item that I can use to temporarily transport me to Lily’s reality.”</p><p>“See?” Lily beams proudly. “I told you she was a sorceress! I’ve seen her do magic!”</p><p><br/>“Oh! Which reminds me.” Leila takes out her gift from her pocket. “I made this for you, Lily. As promised.”</p><p>Lily curiously opens the gift and smiles happily, seeing the little box filled with two colors of earplugs. “Earplugs! Are these enchanted?”</p><p>Everyone rolls their eyes as the two girls seem happy over earplugs. Must be a human thing. But Leila laughs. “I take it my spell that I put on your headset worked?”</p><p>“It did!” Lily hugs her. “But two hours go by too fast…”</p><p>“I thought that maybe your Solomon could replicate my spell, but in case he couldn’t…” She gestures to the box. “These should last longer. I tried to improve my spell at James' and Satan’s request.”</p><p>“Why his request?” Satan wants to know. It feels weird to be named, he notices. But he knows she means her own Satan.</p><p>“So he can hear what Shado has to say, of course.” She beams at him. “Shado is my cat. He’s so cute and so smart. Satan and Belphie really love him. But Belphie usually doesn't want to chat with him, he just wants to cuddle and nap together.”</p><p>Satan can’t help the large grin he gets on his face when Leila mentions a cat. Then he scowls, looking at Lucifer. “How come we don’t get to have a cat?”</p><p>“You know exactly why.” Lucifer growls back.</p><p>“Don’t worry Satan! I’ll share these with you. We can visit our favorite spot together and use them.” Lily assures him, trying to avoid the brewing fight. </p><p>Leila is looking on, a bit uncomfortable. She didn’t mean for this to happen. She had no problem with her own Lucifer to accept her cat. “Sorry.” She whispers to Lily.</p><p>“Don’t worry about it.” She whispers back. “This is normal.”</p><p><br/>“Why are there two colors?” Mammon changes the subject back by greedily trying to take the box from Lily, but gets zapped to his surprise. “Ack! What the hell!”</p><p>“Oh, and I hexed the box as well. So that only the person who I gave it to can open it. You could keep more valuables in it.” Leila warns them all, with an impish grin that looks much like Solomons when he keeps information and only lets everyone know when it’s too late. Lily giggles, she knows that look. Her demons scowl, they know that look as well. “Anyway, you asked about the colors. The lilac ones are for understanding animals.” She smiles as Lily beams. “And since I’m assuming you live with a bunch of loud idiots, just like I am, I have also included another earplug enchantment. The grey ones are for tuning them out.”</p><p>“Like that’ll work on Mammon.” Belphegor scoffs. He couldn’t keep pretending to be napping apparently.</p><p>“Oh, but it does…” Leila gives him a special smile that he doesn’t understand, but makes him feel strange, suddenly. Like he can sense a special emotion from her for his ‘other’, via their pact. “You see, the better someone is at whispering, the better Lily can hear them.” She turns to Mammon now. “And the louder someone is, the less she’ll be able to hear them.”</p><p>“OI!” Mammon shouts offended. “Whadd’ya look at me for!”</p><p>There’s a salvo of laughter following that and even Lucifer can’t hide his smile. </p><p>“Oh, that sounds so useful!” Lily smiles at her friend. “But... not to sound ungrateful, I only see three pair…?”</p><p>“That’s because it’s a permanent enchantment.” Leila tells her. “It was so useful for me during college when I was studying, so I perfected it. I’m still trying to perfect the other. Anyway, I included some extra pairs, in case you lose them or want to give them away.”</p><p>“I’d like a pair of those myself.” Satan grins appreciatively, basically making reservations and there’s a lot of shouting about it again.</p><p>“Maybe I should have just included eight pair…” Leila mumbles with a roll of her eyes. “Bunch of idiots...”</p><p>Lily giggles and takes out demonstratively one of the pairs of grey earplugs and puts them in her ears. She gives Leila a thumbs up with a grin. “They work!” She whispers happily. “Thank you!”</p><p><br/>Levi has finally made his way closer, his jealousy getting the best of him. “The only problem with your gift is that now we’ll never be able to get Lily’s attention. You obviously don’t know her as well as I do, otherwise you would have noticed she’s a bit of a space cadet.”</p><p>“Levi!” Lily blushes but sorta laughs too. She can’t really say he’s wrong after all. </p><p>Leila recognizes Levi’s behavior for what it is. “Don’t worry Leviathan! I won’t steal Lily away from you all.” she grins, teasing him gently. “I can only stay for short moments, after all.” Levi blushes and stutters out something unintelligible. </p><p><br/>“Hey! Let’s take a picture, just the three of us.” Mammon says, pulling Lily and Leila away from Levi. Putting himself between them, he wraps an arm around each of them, still holding his phone in one of his long arms in selfie mode. Mammon is giving the camera one of his roguish grins when Lily glances at Leila. As if on the same wavelength. Leila and Lily both smack a big smooch on either side of Mammon’s cheeks just as he takes the pictures. </p><p>“Oi! Whaddya have to go and ruin a good picture for, huh?! Unbelievable.” he grouches, his face red as the girls giggle and give each other a high five behind his back. He still checks out the picture and grins a bit goofily. The girls both know he’s never going to delete this one!</p><p>“Normies.” Levi scoffs, still jealous and feeling excluded. </p><p>“Oh I want a photo too!” Asmo pouts. Leila suspects he actually wants the smooches and laughs.</p><p>“No, you’re not gettin’ one.” Mammon says, trying to block his brother’s advance. </p><p>Lily and Leila take a selfie on each of their devices so they have their own copies. Leila laughs when she looks at hers. In the background Asmodeus is striking a pose while Mammon is reaching out to choke him. </p><p><br/>There’s a lot more questions and conversation from Lily's demons after that. Lily is feeling relieved that they all seem to start accepting Leila as her friend. But she’s feeling anxious. She wants some personal time! But modest as she is, she doesn’t want to interrupt the conversations. Still, she wants to be selfish. Leila came for her! Not for them. </p><p>She’s about to tell them this as suddenly Leila disappears from the room! Everyone starts shouting in shock and Lily feels like she has missed her chance, after all! She quickly runs back to her room, to not show her demons how sad she is about this. They can all sense it in their pacts with her though and look at each other guiltily.</p><p>They start knocking on her door to apologize, but Lily plugs in her grey earplugs. She isn’t feeling forgiving for them right now! She plays a bit with the box filled with enchanted earplugs. It’s decorated with embroidery and beads and looks very cute. She’s happy that she has proof that this all really happened this time.</p><p>Then she suddenly notices the small note that lays on the bottom of her box, under the earplugs. Quickly she folds it open.</p><p>
  <em> <br/>‘Heya, Lily! I write this in case we don’t get the chance to meet. In this box are enchanted earplugs that I made for you…’ </em>
</p><p>Lily scans over the letter, Leila already told her about those things. Her heart jumps up happily when she’s coming near the end of the letter.</p><p>
  <em> ‘... of course I hope that I can tell you all of this in person. But you never know, with that bunch of idiots. Anyway, I won't be discouraged by any failed attempts. If my invention works correctly - and I’m pretty sure that it does - I can visit your reality every few days or so. Not that I can visit so often, they would throw a fit in my reality and yours probably too, but I will definitely try to visit you soon again! - Leila.’  </em>
</p><p><br/>Lily throws open her door, waving the letter in her demons’ faces, a wide smile on her face and a few tears in her eyes as she tells them happily,  “She will be coming back!” </p><p>Strange. She can’t hear the reactions from her demons outside her door. <em> Oh, that’s right. </em> She remembers, taking out her earplugs. And is immediately blown away again by the loud voices of her demons.</p><p>
  <b><br/>In Leila’s reality…</b>
</p><p>She has suddenly appeared in the middle of the common room, sitting on Mammon, who was lazily stretched out over the couch. <em> Right. I need to think about this part better. </em> She nods to herself. <em> People may think this to be weird... </em></p><p>“Oy! What the hell!” He shouts, startling the others in the room, looking surprised at Leila sitting on top of him.</p><p>“Sorry, Mammon!” She scrambles off of him and runs out of the room to the attic. “I’ll explain later! I gotta do something first!”</p><p>
  <b>Barbatos &lt;&gt; Leila</b>
</p><p><b>&gt; Leila:</b> Barbatos, I have safely returned<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos: (Smiling-Demon sticker)</b> I knew you would.<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> Did you enjoy yourself?<br/><b>&gt; Leila:</b> Yes, I did! <b>(Happy-Demon-sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> I’m glad. We still have to talk about this, Leila.<br/><b>&lt; Barbatos:</b> I come by the House soon, with Solomon.<br/><b>&gt; Leila:</b> Okay.</p><p><br/>Later, Leila shows everyone the pictures she took with Lily. "Wait! Go back!" Asmo says excitedly. Leila scrolls back to the image where the 'other' Asmodeus is photo bombing their picture.</p><p>"Oh! Look I'm so beautiful!" Asmo beams. "But wait..." Asmo's tone turns worried as he zooms in on his 'other' face. "Does he have better skin than me?!" he says as if he might be jealous of another him. </p><p>"Of course not, Asmo. You're flawless." Leila rolls her eyes, as she hugs him, so he can't see it, "I'm sure it's just the lighting." she tells him, pocketing her phone. <br/><br/><br/></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Girl Talk</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Leila visits Lily again and this time the girls finally get the chance to talk. Just the two of them. So they talk about EVERYTHING. (well, almost)</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>We have made similar, yet different universes for our stories, so some things might be familiar when you read either one of our stories. :) It's on purpose. Hahaha!</p><p>There are some spoilers in here from Lily's future story.<br/>And if you haven't read Leila's story yet, some things might be confusing still. If you have any questions, we can redirect you to chapters you might find interesting for background info.</p><p>Mostly we hope that you just relax and enjoy the Girl Talk. Have some tea and cookies, while you read ;)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>The day after Leila’s visit..</b>
</p><p>
  <span>After Leila had disappeared from Lily’s reality and the commotion in the house had died down, Lily sent Solomon a text letting him know about the visit. So, it wasn’t too surprising to her when Solomon and Barbatos paid her a visit together. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily prepares her guests tea and snacks before Solomon can make an offer to do so. “I think you know why we’re here.” Barbatos tells her when she sits down with her own cup of tea. “Solomon and I have discussed this at length and have concurred that there’s no harm in these visits.” Lily lets out a breath of relief she didn’t realize she was holding when she hears that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, but there are conditions.” Solomon adds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Barbatos spreads his gloved hands out over the table. “Indeed. You’ll need to be able to keep secrets from your new friend, namely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Secrets?” Lily wonders aloud.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Neither of you should speak of any recent events of importance that may influence each other’s timeline.” Barbatos explains. “You can talk about it with each other eventually, but give it time.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And for now, it should only be Leila who visits you. We don’t know what sort of impact it could have if the boy visits.” Solomon adds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily nods, as much as she wants to see James again. She understands that until they know more about how this all works, they should limit risks. She’s just relieved they don’t have any issues with Leila coming back. She can’t wait!</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>In another reality a similar conversation is happening...</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>A week has passed… </b>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s movie night in Lily’s room with her three original pact demons. Lily is lounging between Levi and Mammon on their makeshift nest of pillows and blankets. Beel has been banished to the table because he gets too many crumbs and drippings on Lily’s blankets. Levi picked the movie tonight, so naturally they’re watching an anime. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Halfway through the anime there’s a loud pop! And the smell of ozone fills the room as something lands on top of Lily’s bed. Four heads turn to look back at her bed with a start. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leila!” Lily cheers, instantly untangling herself from the floor and throwing her arms around her friend from another reality. “You’re back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh. Right in the middle of movie night.” Levi complains, pausing the movie. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ya sure do know how to make an entrance.” Mammon says with a grin. He loves seeing Lily so happy and he doesn’t mind seeing Leila again either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hiya, guys!” Leila greets, hugging Lily back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Beel says between mouthfuls of popcorn, as if Leila appearing out of nowhere is no big deal. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily is quick to pull away from Leila, hopping over to her TV she turns it off. “HEY!” Levi protests as he watches her pull out the disc and put it back into its case before shoving it back into Levi’s hands. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry guys! Movie night is canceled.” she tells them, she still has a goofy grin on her face. Her demons just stare at her, unmoving. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ugh. Do I really have to spell everything out for them? </span>
  </em>
  <span>Lily wonders to herself feeling impatient. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well? Come on, out, out, out!” she says, grabbing Mammon’s arm and pulling him off her floor. Of course without the command in her voice she would have never budged him. They all make their complaints loudly, as Lily basically banishes them from her room. She’s usually never this way with them, but she’s not missing out on her chance to get a good conversation in with Leila this time! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry guys!” she tells them sweetly. “Tell everyone else to leave us alone too please!” she calls after them before shutting her door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll talk to you guys another time!” Leila laughs, waving them out as well and reinforces the door for good measure with a spell once it is shut behind them.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m so glad you’re back.” Lily tells Leila. “But where are my manners?! Can I get you a drink or snack? I have my own mini fridge.” she motions for Leila to follow her to her closet. “Solomon put a hex on it so Beelzebub can’t raid it.” she laughs. “Help yourself to whatever you like, I keep it stocked with things from the Human World.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did something like that too with my fridge.” Leila laughs at her friend being so excited and busy. “In fact, I booby-trapped my entire room.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once the girls have snacks and beverages they sit down at Lily’s table, ready to catch up. Shuffling and arguing noises distract them and draw their eyes towards the door. Lily’s demons are trying to eavesdrop on the other side and with their good hearing, they certainly will. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know a sound proofing spell?” Lily asks Leila, she’s seen Solomon do that before so she bets Leila can do that too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course! That’s basically a variant of the whisper earplug. Once you know the basics, you can craft any spell you can imagine! Give me a moment…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t hear anything anymore?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you think they’re still in there?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Leila probably cast a spell, you idiot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So weird to have basically another Solomon around.” Someone complains, half annoyed, half impressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila and Lily look at each other and burst into giggles. There’s something satisfying about messing with them. After they finish asking each other how they have been doing since they’ve last seen each other, Lily is ready for some real girl talk.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Leila pulls out her D.D.D. it doesn’t work in this reality but she can still access her media files. “I know I was going to introduce you to Shado, but we can’t… But do you wanna see a picture of him?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily’s eyes light up, she loves animals! “Yes!” she claps her hands. “Lucifer never lets Satan and I keep the kitties we find.” she adds with a sad pout. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Unbelievable, right? He has a monster in the basement, but won't have a cute kitty in the House? I’m glad he accepted mine. Not that he could get me to abandon Shado.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Cerberus is a good pup...but to be fair..I probably would have filled the house with all sorts of animals and creatures by now if he wasn’t so strict.” she laughs. “Aww he’s so adorable!” Lily gushes over the images of Shado. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, Satan is crazy with him, of course.” Leila laughs. “But Belphie too!” She tells Lily how she, Satan and Asmodeus found Shado on the Castle grounds and Lily says that she remembers that this happened to her as well! Only Lucifer didn’t let her keep him...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily pulls out her camera and shares all sorts of images with Leila. Pictures of her napping with Cerberus, Pictures of Mammon with a tiger tail and ears, pictures of her turned into a sheep, pictures of her and Satan posing in an alleyway full of cats. Leila is laughing and smiling along, Lily really is an animal lover! She’s glad to have given her so many enchanted earplugs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, besides being obviously crazy about animals…” Leila smiles at her. “What are your other interests?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I used to have no time for hobbies, but I really always liked being outdoors. Like camping and hiking. I also really like to read and study.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? I like studying as well!” Leila grins, pouring herself another cup of tea. “Not so fond of hiking and camping though… I do like being outside.” She tells her, as if to make a kind of compromise and it makes Lily laugh. “My greatest hobbies are actually to sing and of course I like any and all things to do with magic! I like to invent my own spells and potions and research for it. I’m actually so happy that Satan is into that stuff too…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily can already imagine how those researches go. They must be like two book worms sometimes, both with the same temper. “I like brewing potions too.” She tells Leila and continues proudly. “I’m actually kind of good at it. Who would have thought, right? I’m not really into singing per se, but I do like the stage, for some reason…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh wow, really?” Leila claps her hands as if applauding and Lily looks surprised. “Just like James! He just LOVES the attention, but for some reason, thinks he can’t sing.” She rolls her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well…” Lily smiles shyly. “It’s not exactly because I love the attention, but more the ‘playing pretend' part… I also really like cosplaying with Levi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I like costume making with Levi and Asmo.” Leila nods. “They roped me into supervising the whole play recently. The idiots.” Lily laughs, remembering her own version of that event.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All right Leila. So how many pacts do you have now? I know you at least had a pact with Mammon and Barbatos the last time you were here.” Lily asks, putting her phone aside. “But you said you have four?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila smiles, as if she’s recalling the memory. “Mammon was the first. He insisted upon it on my first day down here, even if I wasn’t that thrilled to make pacts. Then Barbatos asked me. Belphie kept asking me for months, but I didn’t want any more. Until recently I accepted him and Satan both.” Lily smiles seeing Leila blush, she can tell how smitten Leila must be with her mates.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can see Mammon doing that. I bet he wanted to protect you in his own way. That’s impressive that you have a pact with Barbatos. I would be scared to disappoint him, you should have seen the look he gave Solomon when he brought me back from your reality!” Lily tells her with wide eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can imagine. My Solomon wouldn’t make a Kerberos fur mistake. But that’s because he said he has to be careful with teaching me magic. Doesn’t mean that he doesn't do any other weird things. Like just taking me down to the Devildom out of the blue. I’m sure you’re familiar…” Leila is looking at her intently but Lily is oblivious to this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily shifts nervously in her seat.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Don’t balk now Lily. This is what you want. A human girl to have real talk with! </span>
  </em>
  <span>She gives herself a pep talk in her head. “Well..my Solomon, I mean, this realitys Solomon, certainly can be reckless at times….and weird.” she says with a nervous laugh. “But how is James doing?” Lily blurts, changing the subject off of Solomon. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila can tell that Lily isn’t ready to talk about Solomon yet, and lets it slide. “James is so jealous that I’m able to do this with you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aww! I miss him too. Hopefully someday it’ll be okay for us to meet again. I have a letter for you to give to him!” Lily remembers and goes to fetch it from her desk to hand to Leila. Happy that Lily thought of James, Leila beams as she puts it safely away in her pocket.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Speaking of James,” Leila asks, curious. “Can you use your dormant powers like James?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily can’t help frowning a bit as Leila hits upon a bit of a sore subject, “Solomon spent a lot of time trying to pull out my powers after the first year with no luck. I have had more control over my pacts since returning though. I’m sure you understand how much that is needed at times!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah I know. They’re a bunch of idiots. I can draw out James' power temporarily and make us equal. It’s only because we are genetically related, Solomon told us. We need to practice it often, to make me stronger. It can be exhausting for me to do, you see.” This makes Lily feel a little better hearing this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“While we’re still on the subject of James,” Lily says, “I never found out if James is dating any of ‘our’ demons?” she emphasises ‘our’ with air quotes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “He’s completely smitten with Lucifer, if you can believe that. I really thought for a long time that Lucifer had used some sort of spell on him.” Leila gossips with a grin. “But he really loves James, so I’m trying to be supportive. And he’s also with Beelzebub. That I can understand. If he’s not on a tantrum over food, or eating everything I </span>
  <b>just</b>
  <span> took out the oven, he’s very sweet.” Leila rolls her eyes but she has a fond smile on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily gives Leila one of her owlish blinks as she wraps her mind around sweet James paired up with grumpy Lucifer. Then she giggles. “It’s hard to imagine, but Lucifer could definitely use someone like James in his life. And yeah, Beel...I love him but those tantrums..Did you know I had to sleep in his room for a week once because he destroyed part of my bedroom as he destroyed the entire kitchen?! I wonder if that happened to James too?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He told me that it did! Wow! Even the smaller things happened to the both of you?” Leila says in mild amazement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily blinks, “Yeah, it’s pretty crazy when you think about it… Maybe it was because our pact with Beel needed to happen…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila thinks that over and nods. Important events always happen one way or another. She learned this via her pact with Barbatos. “By the way. Did they at least tell you that your life extended with approx 100 years with each pact? Since no one told James.” Leila asks Lily, taking on a more serious air, you can tell she’s still a little bit upset about it.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one told me! I found out about that in a text book, after already making four out of seven pacts! I was so upset for a while.” Lily admits, still sounding a bit peeved herself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh! Unbelievable! Solomon is so irresponsible! I bet you yelled at them?” Leila looks like she’s about to go give someone a piece of her mind once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily giggles, she loves how fired up Leila can get. “I’m more of the silent treatment type…” she admits thinking back to how she gave them all the silent treatment. “Solomon just said to me ‘Oh you didn’t know?’” Lily does her best Solomon impersonation which admittedly isn’t that good. “And Lucifer made some snippy comment about how I shouldn’t have been running around making pacts if I didn’t understand the consequences.” Lily ends, rolling her eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, isn’t Lucifer just lovely?!” Leila responds with an eyeroll of her own, “Like that’s common knowledge amongst humans, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily laughs, “Yeah he’s such a boomer sometimes, but I adore him anyway.” she sighs. “I eventually forgave them and came to terms with it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can tell you’re just as soft with them as James.” Leila teases her. “You have to stand your ground with them. Lucifer thinks he can boss me around like I’m James, or one of his brothers. I don’t think he likes me all that much…” she admits with a shrug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily doubts that even Lucifer would not grow to love Leila, “Hmm. I bet he secretly likes you more than you think!” she tells Leila with a smile. “And It might not show, but I am getting better with them! I think…” she laughs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what is it like being Solomon’s granddaughter? Do you feel a lot of pressure?” Lily asks curiously, half cursing herself for bringing him up again. She felt pressure just being his girlfriend for a time, she can’t imagine being related to him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love him to death.” Leila admits with a brilliant smile, “James too. They’re my only family. He’s been teaching me my magic from when I was ten and my powers started to surface. There is no pressure, but I can tell he feels disappointed in me if I don’t use all of my skills and try to become the best I can be. It’s more like… I don’t want to see that disappointment in his eyes? I want to see his pride and love. So, that’s the pressure I put on myself, I guess.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Lily  nods, absorbing everything that she said. “That makes sense. Mammon and his brothers are the only family I have. Even though they are crazy demons, I don’t like disappointing them either.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“In a way you have me and James now too, right?” Leila asks with a gentle smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily returns the smile and grasps Leila’s hand, giving it an affectionate squeeze. “I do! You both feel very much like family even if we’ve barely known each other.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh!” Leila exclaims as if she’s just remembered something very important.  “And Solomon definitely can’t cook! Don’t EVER eat something he made, before making it actually edible!” She visibly shudders, making Lily laugh. “Something went wrong with his senses of smell and taste over the thousands of years he’s been making potions, I think. Or he misfired one or another spell on himself. Who knows.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily is still laughing when she tells Leila, “When I first came to the Devildom I became sick, depressed from the lack of sunlight and all the crazy. Solomon made me soup and it was so good! Later I found out that Levi actually went into stealth mode, to switch out his cooking with actual canned soup from the human world!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila is laughing now too “Levi is such a mastermind, right? I think Belphie is smarter, but Levi is close with those kinds of things. The way he ropes everyone into doing things for him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily nods in agreement, “I didn’t know about his bad cooking until the retreat we had later when we were asked to cook human world food for the group. I try to tell him his cooking is no good but it always seems to go in one ear and out the other.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila is nodding too, “Yeah… It’s no use. Just flat out refuse it, change it up, throw it out, start from scratch. Anything to save yourself from becoming nauseous.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila is so much fun to talk to, Lily assumes she must have a lot of friends when she asks, “Who are your other friends in the Devildom?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I avoid most of the demons at RAD. They’re after me, since they think I’m easy to make a pact with. They want that because of me being Solomon’s descendant. It’s scary. But all James demons protect me. They all love me too, even if I don’t have pacts with them. ‘My’ Asmo is one of my best friends, actually. We love doing the same things and his cheerfulness always makes me happy. He calls me Sunshine. Don’t tell this to your Asmodeus! Only my Asmo can call me that. Anyway, I still will curse him if he steps out of line.” Leila grins wickedly, “He’s rightfully scared of that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily laughs, Leila sure is a force to be reckoned with. “That’s so sweet. My Asmo and the others sometimes too  call me ‘Flower’ or ‘little flower’”, she rolls her eyes, “It’s not very original,” she admits, “but I like it coming from him. It’s better than most of the nicknames he has for others anyway. I’d never really been into girly things before, but now I love doing all that stuff with him. Maybe someday we can all do a spa day together!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All? Two Asmo’s? I don’t know if any reality is ready for that!” Leila says with big eyes, just trying to imagine it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Haha! You’re right, the universe would probably explode. But maybe just us and one of our Asmo’s then.” Lily counters.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah! That would be lovely!” Leila smiles and then says somewhat slyly,  “You know that Solomon calls me Nightflower? I don’t know why he chose that name, but he calls me that when he’s extra proud of me.” Leila is hoping this will open Lily up more about her relationship with Solomon, does he have a nickname for Lily, she wonders?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily smiles, she thinks that’s really sweet. “I like that. Solomon used to call me ‘his Lily among the thorns’ or sometimes he would call me Diana or ‘little huntress’” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily realizes too late the wistful tone she’s used and blushes. She’s probably revealed too much and feels awkward about Leila being Solomon’s granddaughter! Leila just smiles: She knew it! But now that she's used to the idea, it doesn't feel that strange to her. It makes her happy for Lily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about the Angels? Do you have a Simeon and Luke?” Lily suddenly asks, once more changing the subject.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Yeah! They’re James and my Guardian angels.” Leila smiles brightly, happy to talk about them. “And Luke is so sweet. I feel like we understand each other the most in this world of demons. Simeon is always a bit mysterious, but I feel safe with him around. Satan doesn’t like him though. I don’t know why.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily giggles.”Luke is the cutest! Simeon is mysterious isn’t he? They’ve been a great source of comfort for me too. Do you think Satan is jealous for some reason?” she wonders.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, he’s definitely jealous! I mean: I can hug and smile at everybody BUT Simeon! I don’t understand! It’s not like an angel will involve himself with a human. Not like humans or demons would, right? Sexually? I think that’s not allowed.”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Lily nods, her eyes wide and serious. “Yeah I mean, as I understand it, if he did, he’d become a Fallen angel, a demon basically. I don’t think my Simeon would do that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly. It makes no sense at all.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But that’s scary about what you said about the other Demons. Luckily I don’t have that problem. Sometimes the occasional bullies.” Lily says, bring the conversation back around to something Leila mentioned earlier. “I have a few friends at RAD but nothing like the relationships I have with the brothers. I might have a small crush on someone...but Mammon would probably kill me if he ever found out.” She laughs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No he wouldn’t. He would try to kill your crush, maybe… Better make sure to command him to behave” Leila teases and then tells her in a whisper. “You have no idea how wild Mammon's reaction was to me getting together with Belphie and then with Satan… Crazy…”</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Lily laughs, she can imagine it. “For now I’m just trying to keep it secret..at least until I understand my feelings better. I’m not very good at relationship stuff.” she admits as she groans and hides her face in her hands.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Nobody really is. It’s something you have to learn together, right? But when there's love, I think you’ll be fine.” Leila says comfortingly. Lily isn’t so sure about love, but it makes her feel better as Leila gives her a big hug. Pulling away, Leila looks at Lily seriously as her voice drops a bit even though no one can hear them. “Is your Diavolo also so strange and sort of creepy?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily feels a bit perplexed by this question and the way Leila asked it. She knows she’s not really allowed to ask, but she wants to know if he’s done something weird to her! “Well he’s certainly unique...I don’t think I’d describe him as creepy though. He can be a bit..intense? I’ll admit I don’t really understand him all the time.” Lily answers honestly. </span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Leila seems relieved by Lily’s answer, “I guess you’re lucky then. He always stares at me, like he wants something from me. It creeps me out.” she says with a shudder.</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span><br/>
</span>
  <span>Lily looks at Leila with wide eyes, it must be serious because Leila is a badass and Lily can’t imagine her being dramatic. “That sounds scary.” she admits. Thinking that maybe, they should get back to more fun topics, Lily smiles and does her best Asmo impression. “Soooo, tell me what it’s like being in a relationship with Belphie AND Satan?” she wiggles her brows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Leila laughs shyly and blushes when she answers. “Confusing, most of the time. And exciting. And I feel a bit guilty over it, too. But I couldn’t help loving them both equally. I couldn’t choose and they told me I didn’t have to. It’s their problem to deal with, or something. I still don’t know exactly how that works in a demon brain, to be honest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily giggles, Leila must be brave. She can’t even manage one relationship. “ I can’t even imagine taking both of those two on. I’m sure it’s exhausting at times. Do they fight over you?” Lily wonders. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They do this kind of competition who can get to have me alone the most, but aren’t openly fighting over me. Because they promised not to.” Leila explains. “They don’t like seeing me being sad or hurt.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily nods, she can well imagine it. “That’s good. I hope they hold true to their promises.” she tells her with sincerity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I saw your Belphegor all over you. Is he your mate?” Leila asks, while she’s hoping it's not the case. Not because of any jealousy, but because Belphegor had tried to kiss her and that really would be messed up!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily laughs nervously. “No, not at all.” she shakes her head. “He’s just clingy and possessive. For awhile I thought he just saw me as Lilith...I know he sees me for myself now but he still puts me in that role, if that makes sense?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, he wants to protect the last memory of Lilith that he has…” Leila pauses in thought, “but that reminds me of something! Lets go to the planetarium!”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Lily is surprised by Leila’s sudden change of plans and very curious about what’s in store. So cautiously she opens her bedroom door and peeks out. Apparently everyone got tired of waiting for them to come out, because the coast is clear. Trying not to giggle like school girls and give themselves away, they sneak over to the planetarium. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After Leila secures the door once more, to keep out any and all curious demons, they make themselves comfy on the floor and stare up at the stars. “This is my favorite room in the whole house.” Lily tells Leila. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s mine too. I really love looking up at the stars. Especially after the night I made a pact with Belphie. He made a mountain of pillows and blankets for us to lay on and…” She stops herself just in time. She’s NOT going into all the details of that night! She’s glad that Lily can’t see her blushing in the dark room. “Anyway… Has Belphegor shown you his and Beelzebubs stars?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! Just recently in fact.” Lily says, pointing up at the stars in question. She politely pretends she didn’t know where Leila was going with that story...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you want me to show you Lilith’s star?” Leila asks, sounding excited. “You can show it to your demons later and-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you talking about?” Both the girls startle when Belphegor’s voice comes out of nowhere. Sitting up they see a lump across the room moving, they never noticed he was in here with them!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Picking up his blanket and pillow, Belphegor shuffles over to them before rudely wedging himself between them. Lily and Leila exchange a mutual rolling of the eyes at this typical Belphie behavior. </span>
  <span></span><br/>
<span><br/>
</span>
  <span>“Show me.” Belphegor demands as he pulls both girls back down on the floor with him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, okay…” Leila was going to tell Lily anyway. “When I was here with MY Belphie - she makes sure that he knows not to overstep again - we were looking for a symbol for the both of us, like the twin stars are for you and Beelzebub…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How romantic.” He grumbles sarcastic. “And?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trying not to feel hurt by the tone of his voice - the same voice that she’s used to talk in a loving way to her - she continues. “And we couldn’t find any more stars close together like that, so I suggested we look for just one star that can be seen in all Three Worlds…” Leila stops talking, looking expectantly to Belphegor's face. If he's anything like her own, he should know where she’s getting at.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right.” He points. “That one… It appeared in the sky after the War, just like mine and Beel’s. Are you saying that…?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that one.” She confirms, sounding happy with the memory. “It’s a symbol for Lilith’s descendants. See how bright it is and how it’s flickering so fast. Unlike your steady stars. It resembles the short lives of humans. Many of them. Coming and going. But still going strong. Lilith must have thousands of descendants!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’s quiet for a while, just like her own Belphegor was. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh no! Is he going to kiss me too?!</span>
  </em>
  <span> She’s already preparing herself for blasting him away again. She shuffles a bit away from him, but he pulls her back against him in a one-armed hug. She sees he has hugged Lily against him with his other arm and the two girls look at each other surprised over his chest. Lily’s face is a mirage of emotions from the story.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Giving Leila suddenly a kiss on her cheek he says. “I never knew… Thanks for showing me!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Show me too, please!” Lily says as she tries to keep her voice even but she can’t hide that she’s crying. That was the sweetest thing she’s ever heard! She was trying to follow along and now Belphegor and Leila laugh and show her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just realizing something, Lily blurts out. “Wait! Are you a descendant of Lilith too? I just assumed you weren’t because you’re Solomon’s granddaughter, but you’re also related to James..” Lily rambles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, apparently. Because my father and his mother were twins and they were also descendants. Hence, so are we. Who knew right? The day I came down here I thought they were all crazy, being excited about that. But now I understand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe that’s why we feel so connected too?” Lily muses. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I kind of had the feeling…” Belphegor says, sounding strangely honest. “A connection I felt when I met you. It’s a bit like what I feel with Lily too. Maybe some humans can feel that connection as well…”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Leila is about to respond when she feels herself being transported back to her own reality. And she’s gone again from Lily’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ugh.” Belphegor complains, annoyed that suddenly Leila disappeared from his hugging arm. “So rude.” He embraces his still sniffling Lily tighter now and she giggles a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But then Lily sighs, she had a wonderful visit but she never gets to say goodbye! At least she was able to give Leila the letter for James this time. She’s lost in her thoughts as Belphegor pulls her closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will you stop crying already?” Lily laughs a bit and wipes at her tears. It turned into an emotional evening for her. “Don’t get your snotty tears on my pillow.” he teases her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not.” Lily insists, pushing on his arm. Pulling her back, they stare up at the stars once more. “Leila’s great isn’t she?” Lily says. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mmhm.” Belphegor murmurs noncommittally but Lily knows him better than that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Belphie?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t get too attached okay?” Lily says softly. “She really loves her own Belphie and I don’t want you to get hurt…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Belphegor meets Lily’s eyes, before he snorts and rolls his own, “Are you done?” he asks in that bratty tone of his. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lily gives up and pulls out her D.D.D. “I’m going to invite everyone up here. Can you explain about the star?” she asks as she’s typing out a message. “I don’t think I could without crying again.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fine. but you’re pathetic, you know that?” he teases her. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It doesn’t take long for everyone to arrive outside the planetarium. Lily opens the door for them, to break Leila’s locking spell. She did that earlier with the door of her own room as well, after all. As usual, they are loud and everyone is talking at once and wondering where Leila is. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shhh!” Lily shushes them, it’s a command and they all start to settle. “Leila is already gone.” She tells them and can see that Satan and Mammon in particular are disappointed they didn’t get to talk with her. “Everyone come join us.” Lily says, patting the floor next to her. “We want to show you something that Leila shared with us tonight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There’s some shuffling and shouting as a few of them argue on who’s going to be on Lily’s other side. Seriously, she can barely believe they still make a fuss about things like this. Once everyone is settled. Belphegor explains about Liliths star. A natural hush comes over the room as they all stare up at the star in wonder. </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Break from Reality</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Belphegor finds Leila in the attic again and hurries to find Lily, when he notices how upset she is.<br/>Leila has an upsetting story to tell, once Lily and Mammon have arrived in the attic.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This chapter contains spoilers to what happened with Leila in<br/> Part 15 Shatterered Worlds, chapter 11 https://archiveofourown.org/works/27539311/chapters/68042134<br/> Part 16 Leaving the Devildom, chapter 1 https://archiveofourown.org/works/27815422/chapters/68097310</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>It’s been a few crazy weeks since the last visit...</b>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor is napping in the attic, when suddenly a familiar someone lands on top of him out of nowhere again. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Leila!</span>
  </em>
  <span> He thinks as a first reaction, and scolds himself immediately after that. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ugh, don’t get excited.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He doesn’t want to admit it, but he really likes this girl from another reality. Especially after she showed Lily and him Lilith’s star. He can sense the strong bond she shares with his ‘other’ and it confuses him a bit, but it feels pleasant. It feels like being loved. Even if the feeling is not truly meant for him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve got to stop meeting like this.” he teases her, sitting up. He can’t help wanting a bit of that love for himself - demon as he is - and wraps his arms around her waist. But he is careful not to push her any further. He doesn’t want to be blasted out of bed again, after all. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He expects Leila to push him away or scold him with that little temper of hers, so he’s alarmed when she dissolves into tears instead. “Is Lily here? Is she okay? I really need to speak with her.” Leila manages to get out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s wrong?” He asks worriedly, but she shakes her head and keeps sniffling. He can’t stand to look at it. It looks too much like a crying Lily. And Lily almost never cries.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please, Belphegor.” She pleads with teary eyes. “I don’t have that much time, I think. Could you get Lily for me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor feels torn, he doesn’t want to leave her but he wants to make her stop crying too. Moving her off his lap, he tries to take the box she’s clutching but she won’t let go, giving up on that he settles for wrapping one of his blankets around her shoulders so she feels comfortable.. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll be right back.” He promises and she nods gratefully. Still holding the box against herself.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He has rushed downstairs to get Lily, but he can’t find her. Growling with frustration when he finds her room empty, he sends her a text. He doesn’t want to send the whole house on a manhunt if possible because he doesn’t think Leila would appreciate all the attention from his brothers right now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <b>Belphegor &lt;&gt; Lily</b>
</p>
<p>
  <b>&lt; Belphegor: </b>
  <span>Lily! Where are you?! Leila is here and she’s really upset. Come to the attic now!</span>
</p>
<p><span>Lily and Mammon are on a walk to Devilsmart when she opens up her D.D.D. to find Belphegor’s message. Leila is here?! After all the craziness she’d been through lately, she really didn’t expect Leila to have time to visit if anything was similar in their reality.</span> <span><br/></span></p>
<p>
  <b>&gt; Lily: </b>
  <span>On my way!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor feels relieved when Lily responds right away. He can only hope she’s not too far from home and will come quickly. Not knowing what else to do, he decides to do for Leila what he’d do if Lily was the one in distress. Going into the kitchen he brews Lily’s favorite tea, grabs some chocolate from Lily’s secret stash, since Beel is the only one hexed from accessing it. Tea, chocolate and cuddles...if she’ll allow them. He heads back to the attic, hoping Lily isn’t far behind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily, feeling a sense of panic and dread for her friend, tugs on Mammon’s sleeve stopping him mid stride after she’s sent her response to Belphegor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mammon. Get me back home, fast!” Lily pleads, her eyes large and frightened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon doesn’t know what’s up but he doesn’t like that look on her face, no questions asked, he lifts her up, cradling her close to his body as he zips back to the House of Lamentation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The attic.” is all she says as soon as Mammon steps into the house. He nods and races her upstairs in less than a minute..</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When they enter the attic room, they are surprised by the scene: Leila is curled up in a blanket, sitting against the headboard with a warm mug of tea in her hand. Belphegor is talking calmly with her, rubbing her back. </span>
  <span>A mysterious box is set aside on a table nearby.</span>
  <span> Leila is looking much calmer than Lily expected and Lily is grateful that Belphegor took such good care for her and made her comfortable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lily!” Leila puts the mug of tea in Belphegor’s hand and he grunts in response - it sounds suspiciously like ‘so rude.’ but he is being ignored. - and she stretches her arms out to her. “You’re okay, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hm? Lily can imagine why she’s asking if Leila and James' past few weeks have been anything like her own. But Leila knows they are not supposed to talk about these things. She worries what has her friend so rattled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, I’m alright.” She nods, accepting the embrace and curling up next to Leila on the other side. “Just a bit tired…” Leila studies her face and nods, as if she knows. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I swear she can read minds.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lily thinks, before focussing herself for her friend. “Belphie said you were upset, though…” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Unable to sit still now, Leila jumps from the bed. “Upset?! I’m not just UPSET! I’m FURIOUS!” She starts pacing the room and to Lily’s surprise she sees that Leila is conjuring fire in her hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whoa, whoa!” Mammon shouts, grabbing her by the shoulders. “We already have one Satan in the House. Calm down a little.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looks up to him, surprised with what he means until she realizes what she's doing. “Sorry…” She nods. “I’ve been doing that too often the past few days… I’m just so frustrated, and angry and sad and… Scared… While I just should be happy! I deserve to be HAPPY!” She yells at Mammon, who doesn't understand what is happening at all, but just nods, still holding her shoulders steady.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily’s eyes are wide as she watches her friend explode with anger. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Of course Leila deserves to be Happy! What could have happened to Leila? Did she have a falling out with one of her mates?!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lily wonders. “What’s going on, did she say something to you?” Lily whispers to Belphegor in the meantime.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Beats me.” He shrugs, like he doesn’t care, but Lily sees him worried. “She was crying at first, then calm and</span>
  <span> almost </span>
  <span>content and now this.” He can’t pretend anymore. “I mean, it’s pretty fascinating to watch, but…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, something is definitely wrong here.” Lily nods at him and then turns to Leila who is now calming down a little again by Mammon rubbing her back. “Why don’t you try to tell us what’s going on?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Without explodin’ into a fireball, this time.” Mammon grumbles and joins his human and brother on the bed. “Sheesh! Is that what they’re dealin’ with in that other reality?” He shudders exaggeratedly and that makes Leila laugh a little.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay yeah…” She nods determined to get through it. </span>
  <span>She sits back on the bed again, opposite of the others.</span>
  <span> “I’m not sure how much time I have. I just gave it a few spins.” She holds up her hourglass pendant as an explanation. “Lily, I have to go to the Celestial Realm for a very long time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon’s brows raise in surprise and even Belphegor’s apathetic face shifts curiously. Lily frowns, going to the Celestial Realm itself doesn’t sound so bad but it sounds like she’s being forced to go. Lily really wants to give her friend some comfort but for now she feels like she needs to give her some space while she gets whatever this is, off of her chest. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Why do you HAVE to go? And what do you mean by a very long time?” Lily asks, her voice gentle but she can’t hide her concerned expression. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because Lord Diavolo wants to make me his mate!” She shouts furiously. “He’s gone completely insane! He thinks he can just take me! He has NO right! I’m a human!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What?! Lily’s mind reels, trying to process Leila’s furious outburst. Mammon and even Belphegor jump up, as if very agitated by what Leila just said. They can’t help feeling protective over her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He can’t get to me in the Celestial Realm, so I have to stay there until…” She pauses and then sighs suddenly with a happy sweet smile in the middle of her angry rant. “Until my baby is born…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor sits back down on the bed as if the wind has been knocked from him with this news. “BABY?!” Mammon shouts. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily wastes no time in wrapping Leila in a hug. “Oh, my goodness! A baby! Congratulations!” she can’t hide her excitement for her friend. She knows Leila will be a strong and beautiful mother. </span>
  <span>Leila beams when she accepts her hug. This is how she wanted to feel after hearing the news: just happy.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Wait?! Whose baby are ya carrying?!” Mammon wants to know, looking at Leila as if she’s grown another head. “Don’t tell me it’s Diavolo’s?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily scowls at Mammon for asking such an insensitive question that way. “Of course not!” Lily says, rubbing Leila’s back and hoping to all that is good, that she’s right. “It must be with one of her mates..”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Leila giggles, still having her sweet smile. “Well, I actually don’t know whose it is, but it’s either Satan’s or Belphie’s…” She looks sternly at Mammon. “Obviously. They said that it’s not important for them to know and so they both will be the father.” </span>
  <span>Lily notices how Leila sounds relieved when she says that. Maybe she was worried for arguments between the two.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon at least has the decency to look embarrassed after that. Lily spares a glance at Belphegor feeling his inner turmoil through their pact. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh! But Leila…” Lily looks sad. “It’ll be so terrible to be separated from your mates during this time. Are you sure there’s no way around this? Surely, your Diavolo can be reasoned with? How did this even come about?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor snorts derisively, but Lily ignores him. She already knows that he thinks that she puts too much faith in Diavolo. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Leila’s face gets dark again. “Remember how I told you, I thought Diavolo was creepy? Looking at me in that weird, uncomfortable way? It turns out that he was, just as every other demon in the Devildom, drawn to my powers and wants to possess me. Apparently it’s something that demons are drawn to.” She says, scowling accusingly to Belphegor and Mammon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Heh.” Belphegor chuckles humorlessly. He’s never liked Diavolo. “Sounds like the Diavolo in your reality has shown his true colors. He’s always been a hypocrite.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily knew this about demons, Asmodeus had told her as much but she couldn’t imagine Diavolo grievously overstepping this way. Wouldn’t it undermine everything he was working towards? She can’t help but wonder what could push her own version of Diavolo to act in a similar manner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, at a certain party, Barbatos warned Lucifer, Solomon and Simeon to get me out of there, or else I won’t be given a choice and just be added to Diavolo’s harem. I won’t even be safe in the Human World from him. The only thing that saves me is…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...havin’ a baby with one of your mates.” Mammon completes Leila’s sentence to Lily’s surprise. “It’ll basically make everything official…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, but before it is born, I’m apparently still fair game.” She suddenly can’t keep the tears away again. “He might hurt the baby, to still be able to claim me…” She needs a few moments to get herself calm enough to continue. “So, I have to be in the Celestial Realm, where he can’t follow me and drag me back. To have my baby on my own…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily is so angry after listening to everything that Diavolo has put Leila through. It’s not just her own anger too, she can feel Mammon’s and Belphegor’s anger too. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh!” she exclaims in frustration, not knowing how to properly vent. “I’d like to say a thing or two to that demon!” she says, fists clenched. “Listen Leila, you’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met! You’re going to have a beautiful baby and you’re going to come back stronger than ever. You’ll teach him not to mess with you anymore, I just know it!” Lily tells her friend, full of conviction and Leila beams at her for saying all those sweet things. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“At least I will have Simeon and Luke with me.” She says with a teary smile. “And I can study Celestial magic! That would be awesome, right? Oh! And you better BELIEVE I will blast Diavolo to kingdom come if he touches my baby, when I return!” Suddenly she seems to radiate a strange glowing power as if she’s encased in an indestructible magic armor? And now Lily also notices the silver ring on Leila’s finger glowing up. Looking instinctively to her own ring she received recently, she sees to her surprise that it faintly glows in a reaction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor snickers wickedly. “I’d like to see that. I already know how it feels to be blasted away by you and he deserves much worse from you after hearing all this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon for once has been struck dumb. He can’t get out of his own head thinking about how his ‘other’ self is going to feel about this and how he would react if it was his Lily in Leila’s shoes. It’s enough to drive him crazy. Then he can’t keep his thoughts to himself, suddenly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why’d your Mammon not come to your defense?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, when Lucifer told us, Satan and Belphie were ready to storm the Castle and commit regicide, but Lucifer stopped them and said we have to keep this a secret for everyone until I’m safe… So, he doesn’t know yet…” She sighs sadly. “Not even James knows… I just had to tell SOMEONE. I’m so glad I could at least tell YOU, Mammon. Even if you’re not my Mammon, it feels close enough for me.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She snuggles in his arms suddenly, making Mammon very shy, but he can’t help himself and embraces her. “Aww… Silly humans…” Pulling Lily in the embrace as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily gives Leila another hug, “Thank you for coming to tell us, I would have been beside myself with worry if I went nine months without hearing from you! I just know you’re going to be okay though.” Lily squeezes her once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, that’s another reason I came here, today.” Leila nods and grabs the box that Mammon was curiously eyeing already a few times. “I didn’t want you to think that I died, or something… Anyway, I have something important for you. So before my time runs out.” Leila says, giving Lily the box. “Just open it after I’m gone again, okay? I now just want to talk and be comforted for as long as possible.” She walks up to Belphegor and says. “Thanks for being my friend today, Belphegor.” She hugs him tightly. “I know it’s confusing for you, being around me. It’s confusing for me too. But I’m grateful for your friendship.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor stiffens in her embrace, not expecting it nor her words. Eventually he relaxes and returns her embrace. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Belphie already gave Leila tea and chocolate..that means it's time for a cuddle party!” Lily says, setting the box aside for now, as curious as she is she needs to focus wholly on Leila now. Mammon groans in protest, he’s too worked up! That’s the last thing he wants to do right now. But Lily grabs his hand firmly and pulls him onto the bed with her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bephegor and Lily snuggle Leila protectively between them and Mammon huffs, acting like it’s a big chore for him when he becomes Lily’s big spoon in this cuddle fest. Lily tries to cheer Leila up by asking her all sorts of questions about her baby. “Oh I’m so excited to find out if it will be a boy or a girl? Will you find out or will you keep it a surprise? I don’t think I could handle a surprise like that.” she rambles on excitedly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hahaha!” Leila laughs happily. “I bet I shout it from the Celestial rooftops once I find out. So loud that you can hear it even in this reality!” She jokes. “I mean, there must be magic that can do that, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily smiles brightly, it's good to hear Leila laugh despite everything. “Oh I would love it if there was!” she giggles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I probably just tell James so he can tell you, though.” Leila giggles and Lily wonders what she means by that. Sometimes she thinks that Leila thinks that Lily is a mind reader too, like James. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I need to ask her if she is, one time.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lily makes a mental note.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If it’s a boy, you can name him Mammon.” Mammon says, with a smug grin on his face. Belphegor makes a sound of disgust. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, and what if it’s a girl, genius?” Belphegor mocks his older brother.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmmm.” Mammon pauses to think. “Mamona? Mamina?”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Pathetic” Belphegor grumbles while Lily and Leila giggle and roll their eyes at the same time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah...I think I’ll have to pass.” Leila laughs. “They’re NOT going to be named after any demon.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Rude.” Belphegor grumbles behind Leila. She giggles and awkwardly reaches back to ruffle his hair. “Ugh, is this your idea of fun?” He complains, but Lily sees him smile slightly as he shifts a little closer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oi! Ya know your mates are demons right?!” Mammon says, raising his voice so that Lily hushes him, trying to bring back the calm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, so?” Leila asks him with big innocent eyes. “My baby will be a nephilim. Not a demon. So, no demon name.” She reaches out to ruffle his hair too and he grumbles something, but can’t help a smile. Leila laughs as she sees that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whatever name you do choose, I’m sure will be lovely.” Lily says dreamily.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Leila sighs happily. “It needs to be something special and pretty and strong…I really want you to meet my baby one day, Lily...” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>After a while of talking Leila has drifted off to sleep, finally an expression of relaxation on her face. All three are quiet and look at her, hoping she will soon be safe in her own reality. Lily can’t help feeling a bit small and powerless. If only there was more she could do for her friend. Suddenly Leila disappears from their arms again and it feels very empty for Lily. She sighs. It’s hard to get used to that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I hate that part.” Belphegor grumbles, pulling Lily against him to fill up the sudden void. Mammon protests, having to follow Lily to keep embracing her or miss out on it altogether.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah… me too...” Suddenly she sits up, having two complaining demons follow her. “Let’s see what her present is? You guys wanna know too?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily walks over to the table she’d set the box down on earlier, despite their complaints, Mammon and Belphegor curiously crowd around her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wonder what something from another reality would fetch on the market?” Mammon wonders, already dreaming up selling whatever Lily finds inside the box. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily pauses in opening the box to send Mammon a scowl. “Hmm. I’d say it would cost you one human friendship.”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span></span>
    <br/>
  
  <span>“I’m just kiddin’!” Mammon says, throwing up his hands defensively.</span>
  <span></span>
  <br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Carefully opening the box, Lily is surprised by the contents. It shows a lot about Leila’s character, the meticulous care that went into putting this box together for Lily. Despite the rush Lily imagines she would have been in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the box there are a couple of items, ingredients and lists. Lily takes the letter that sits on top of everything and folds it open.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Heya, Lily! Inside this box you find everything you need to create your own reality-turner. I suggest that you give this to your Solomon, so that he can help you with the more complicated steps and that you create it together…’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>He probably doesn’t want me to go to another reality with another Solomon.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lily thinks. She decides to keep all this a secret for her Solomon for now, until she knows more about using her newfound powers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s a list of ingredients:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘White Sand from Siren’s Beach (Included)</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Descendant-human hair from the reality you want to travel to (Included. It’s mine. Sorry, I never got around to apologize for using yours.)’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily, being used to much weirder things by now, laughs and thinks. </span>
  <em>
    <span>That’s okay…</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Kerberos hair from the reality you’re from. (I’m sure you can access plenty of those)</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Distilled water.’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Followed by a couple of more common ingredients that are used for infusion. After that is a whole list of spells that is needed to complete the reality-turner. Followed by a step by step instruction on how to actually create it. Lily marvels over the detail and complicity. She also chuckles a bit over some of the underlined pieces. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Leila wants to make sure that there won't be any rushed mistakes that can botch the spell.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She thinks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Cleanse the sand with a cleansing spell and some </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>distilled </span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span>water… </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>Make sure no other metals from seawater still cling on it!</span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span> Grind it into the </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>finest</span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span> powder…</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Fuse the two hairs together with the fusing ingredients and spells provided.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Infuse the </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>cleansed</span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span> and </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>powdered</span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span> sand with the magically fused hair. The sand will turn into the color of the hair.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Fill your hourglass with the infused end product. And cast the final spell.’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily reads the rest of the instructions and letter with excitement. She can’t wait to start crafting her own reality-turner! Mammon and Belphie whistle, reading along over her shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Looks complicated…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are ya really goin’ to do this, Lily?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Lily doesn’t even hear them right now, as she continues to read.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Once your reality-turner is finished, you can set the timer by turning it a few times. Each turn is one hour. Keep in mind that you </span>
  </em>
  <span class="u">
    <em>
      <span>can’t</span>
    </em>
  </span>
  <em>
    <span> return to your own reality sooner than this, or stay away longer. It’s still a thing of practice for me… Anyway, also keep in mind that you go and return to the place you are at that right moment. Which can startle the people around you.’ </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Belphegor snickers, when he reads that part. Leila has done it to him twice now.</span>
  <em>
    
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Choosing a good location is key. After using the reality-turner, you can’t use it for a couple of days, so keep that in mind as well. </span>
  </em>
  <em>
    <span>I’m giving my reality-turner to James for safekeeping. He should also be able to use it. I hope to see you again once I can return safely to the Human World. I will miss you so very much! - Leila.’</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Lily has mixed feelings as she sits down, letter in hand. She can barely believe her friend took the time to do this for her after all she’d been through. While she was so happy and excited for Leila’s pregnancy she was also worried for her and so very angry at Leila and James' version of Diavolo, so angry in fact that she was feeling angry at her Diavolo too. She didn’t want to think that the Diavolo she knew would be capable of such a thing but the bruise on her wrist made her think twice. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apparently she wasn’t the only one having these thoughts too, as the voices of Mammon and Belphegor finally started to register to her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t think our Diavolo could be after Lily too, do you?” Belpehgor asks Mammon, his voice laced with malice. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily can feel both his anger and his hurt. She’d warned him about getting attached to Leila. She could see the mixed emotions when he found out the ‘other’ him was going to be a Father. Lily wanted nothing more for her own Belphegor to find that sort of happiness someday. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon growls dangerously. “It’s like Leila said, if I find out he does that to our Lily, I’ll storm the Castle too, like her mates wanted to do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Definitely.” Belphegor nods cracking his knuckles. “Their Diavolo thanks his life to Leila already being pregnant, which takes priority for her mates.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, I’m angry too but let’s calm down.” Lily tells them, trying to be the rational one. “After all, our Diavolo hasn’t done anything wrong...besides you know..lying to us..”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah? Then what’s this?” Belphegor says, snatching Lily’s arm, to show Mammon her bruised wrist. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did Diavolo do this?!” Mammon asks, seeing the bruise for the first time. “That’s it. I’m tellin’ Lucifer.” he says, rolling up his sleeves. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No you’re not!” Lily says sternly. “It happened while we were dancing, it was an accident.” she tells them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They stare at her incredulously, as if she’s some sort of idiot. “Look.” Lily sighs, trying to get through to them. “Lucifer’s been through enough, we all have. As far as I know, I share James’ fate, not Leila’s. So we shouldn’t do anything that might cause more problems.'' She tries to reason with them. “For now, what happens in the attic, stays in the attic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine.” Mammon finally agrees, folding his arms. “But I’m keepin’ my eye on him.”  Lily looks to Belphegor to make sure he’s with them too. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whatever.” he shrugs, acting as if he no longer cares. “I’m going to take my nap now. So join me or get out.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Later at dinner Lily is lost in her own thoughts. Her emotions are all over the place. She’s going to have to leave her family again soon for the Human World and on top of it she can’t stop thinking about Leila. In her heart of hearts she knows Leila will be fine but it’s just not right, or fair what she’s having to go through. To be separated from her mates while she’s pregnant?!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily stabs angrily at her food. Lucifer has narrowed his eyes at her, as usual Lily is oblivious to what’s going on around her. All Lily had told them earlier was that Leila had visited and wouldn’t be able to visit for a long time because she was pregnant. Lily was a bad liar though and he could tell that she was not sharing the whole story, he also knew his brother’s tells and he could see that she’d convinced Mammon and Belphegor to keep their mouths shut. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s up with her?” Satan asks around the table when Lily excuses herself early.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh ya know..” Mammon nervously tries to cover for her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did you do now Mammon?” Asmo asks scathingly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He probably sold something of hers.” Levi suggests. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ya got me.” Mammon admits. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The brothers berate Mammon but Lucifer is unconvinced. He knows how Mammon will willingly fall on the sword for his family when warranted. When Lucifer retires to his room he’s surprised to find Lily sitting on his couch, waiting for him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily stands, her hands folded behind her. “I don’t want to burden you, but I don’t want to lie to you like Diavolo did…” her voice drifts off. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer reaches her in a few strides and lifts her chin so she can meet his gaze. “You could never burden me, Lily flower.” Lucifer rarely uses pet names with her and it brings tears to her eyes as she wraps her arms around his waist. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer indulges her and sits down on the couch with her curled up on his lap. “Tell me what's bothering you, does it have anything to do with Leila’s visit today?” he asks her, gently combing her hair in a soothing manner. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The real reason Leila won’t be able to visit for so long is because she’ll be up in the Celestial Realm for her entire pregnancy and she has to go there because Lord Diavolo has apparently lost his mind in that reality and was hunting her to become his mate!” Lily ends up telling Lucifer everything that Leila had told them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I see.” Lucifer finally says after he’s listened to her quietly. “Are you worried something similar could happen to you here?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m just angry...and sad.” Lily says, absentmindedly rubbing her bruised wrist. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer doesn’t want to worry Lily by mentioning that he has been a little concerned over Diavolo’s behavior as of late, not just because of what he kept from Lucifer himself but the way he catches him looking at her at times. But tonight seems to be a night for truths. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sighing wearily he admits his concerns to her. “However, I don’t think ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ Diavolo would ever take things that far. If he does, you can rest assured that I will be there to put him in his place.” Lucifer assures her. “You’re our Lily after all, not his.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A Visit From James</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>James makes his first visit to the other reality. Lily is delighted to see him, Solomon..not so much.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>In James’ reality...</b>
</p>
<p>“James.” Solomon says to him at breakfast after he has read several morning papers. “I have to do some important things today.”</p>
<p>James knows this routine. Solomon is not just Leila’s grandfather, he’s also the most powerful sorcerer of the Human World magical society. He’s being called King Solomon the Wise for a reason, after all. And if Solomon suddenly goes on a trip like this, he has found something interesting in the papers. Something to do with the Human World magical society. And James is just too curious as to what it could be about.</p>
<p>“Okay.” James nods, still asking the question he knows the answer already. “Can I join you this time?”</p>
<p>“I’m afraid not.” Solomon denies him again, patiently. “You’re too inexperienced still. Be sure to study the material we went over yesterday. I won’t be long.”</p>
<p>And with that, he’s teleported himself out of the room and out of the house. Probably even out of the country. James sighs. He knows Solomon refuses him for his own protection, but… It’s disappointing. Leila must have dealt with this countless times. Still he never noticed that her curiosity got the best of her. She always decided to do her own investigation, if she felt it was important. Like sending her cat out to spy for her. James chuckles. He knows he should learn to be more patient and crafty like that. It’s part of his apprentice-ship, after all. But still… Leila has studied magic since she was ten, she is almost as skilled as Solomon himself. </p>
<p>And James doesn’t even know where to start with an investigation like that. He’s never found something out of the ordinary interesting in the papers that would prompt him to investigate. Maybe this is where he first needs to learn experience? Ugh, if only Solomon wasn’t so mysterious at times!</p>
<p>“I wonder if Lily is having trouble keeping her curiosity at bay?” He wonders out loud to his empty plate. “Or would her Solomon take her on investigative trips like that?”</p>
<p>Suddenly hit by an idea, he jumps up and rushes to his room. There, in a box in one of his drawers sits Leila’s reality-turner. Leila had told him that now the world is stabilizing again because of his Ring of Light, he most likely can meet with Lily again. Since he and Lily aren’t the same person. And James doesn’t exist in Lily’s reality. Not anymore. </p>
<p>He hasn’t been given any time to use it yet, despite being back in the Human World for several months already. Solomon's apprentice-ship training has been so intense that he just felt too tired to use it and be his jovial self with Lily. And he’s honestly also a little nervous to use it. It’s Leila’s invention that she gave him for safekeeping. What if he breaks it? But today, he feels fearless. If Solomon is off somewhere mysterious, then James wants an adventure of his own!</p>
<p>James is sitting on his bed, ready to use the turner when he remembers what Leila told him about carefully picking his spot. This could be Lily’s room too! He’s glad he caught himself in time, it wouldn’t be very good manners to pop into a girls bedroom unannounced like that after all. Eventually he decides on the couch in the livingroom and can only hope no one is sitting there. He gives the reality turner a bunch of spins, completely forgetting about Leila’s warning to keep track of the times. <em> Eh, it’ll be fine. </em> He shrugs.</p>
<p>
  <b><br/>In Lily’s reality...</b>
</p>
<p>Lily is humming a little tune as she cooks. Solomon stepped out to grab some ingredients at the local apothecary. She took the opportunity to start dinner before he could offer. So far she’s successfully dodged all his attempts at cooking. It’s weird, living in this house again with him. The last time she was living here seemed a lifetime ago, she’d just survived a year in the Devildom, she was head over heels in love for the first time and she couldn’t perform a simple spell if her life depended on it. Now she’s here as Solomon’s apprentice, powerful in her own right, the bearer of the Ring of Light. </p>
<p>There’s a strangely familiar sound coming from the living room that pulls Lily out of her thoughts. “Hm? Is Solomon home already? Must have forgotten something. Him and his teleportation… Why can’t he ever use the door…”</p>
<p>When Lily finds James dusting himself off in the living room, she almost leaps into his arms until she remembers what happened the last time they shook hands. Seemingly having the same thought as her, James and Lily tentatively touch index fingers. The only reaction they get is their twin rings subtly glowing.</p>
<p>James laughs, “Come here! I don’t think the universe is going to implode!” Lily laughs and accepts his hug. </p>
<p>“I’m so excited to see you! I was hoping you would visit when Leila said she left her reality-turner in your care. I would have visited you already but I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my own and I have to make Leila proud by getting it exactly right. It’s a bit advanced for me yet.” she explains. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” James nods, playing with the reality-turner around his neck. “I don’t even know how she comes up with the right spells. It’s like she’s a genius.” He says proudly.</p>
<p>“You must be so proud, having her.” Lily sighs wistfully. “I bet your childhood was fun, when she did all kinds of magic tricks!”</p>
<p>“Well, of course it was fun!” James laughs jovially. “But I never even knew she was a witch and now suddenly she’s become a sorceress last year and my mind was BLOWN!” He makes a gesture of an exploding head and Lily giggles.</p>
<p>“Oh, but you always knew about her being a mind reader, right?” Lily just has to know this. “Are you a mind reader too? Or do you do some kind of telepathy?”</p>
<p>James laughs and it takes a bit for him to be ready to explain. “Nah. We just practiced our own secret language. You know: sign language, facial expressions, body language. We started from a very, very young age. To cover up our mischief from our parents.”</p>
<p>Lily looks skeptically. “You’re just so good at reading people?”</p>
<p>“Leila has this extra sensitivity with people where she can guess their true character and intentions.” James admits. “It makes her very guarded. I’m a bit more stupid, I guess.” He shrugs unconcerned.</p>
<p><br/>Lily giggles at James until her eyes go wide. “Oh! Dinner!” Lily remembers she has things on the stove and rushes back into the kitchen, relieved to see nothing has burnt. That would have been embarrassing.</p>
<p>“Uhh... Dinner?” James asks inquisitively as he follows her into the kitchen. <em> It’s a bit too early for dinner. </em>He thinks to himself. He has to admit that the smells coming from the stove smell delicious though. </p>
<p> “Oh yes, I have to start it early. When Solomon’s out preferably. It’s the easiest way for me to make sure he doesn’t try to surprise me.” she laughs. “Hopefully you won’t disappear before dinner is ready. I’m sure you could use a meal that wasn’t cooked by Solomon.” </p>
<p>James laughs, “That sounds amazing. I actually don’t know how many hours I have. I forgot to count… I hope you don’t mind me staying for possibly a long time?”</p>
<p>Lily laughs. Yes, that sounds like James. She doesn’t know him that well yet, but she could tell from the beginning he was more careless than Leila. “Mi casa, su casa.” she tells him with a smile, regardless of the fact it’s not technically her home. While Lily is stirring the sauce she’s making, she looks over her shoulder at James. “Feel free to grab something from the fridge if you’re thirsty? Just avoid that pitcher of Juice. How Solomon was able to ruin fresh squeezed orange juice...I’ll never know!”</p>
<p>“I’ve debated for a whole day with Solomon to take turns on cooking duty.” James exaggerates while pouring himself something safe. “So now I’m starving every other day…”</p>
<p>“Starving?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, one of the first spells I taught myself is a vanishing spell.” He laughs. “I make his food disappear, while pretending to eat it. But I make extras on my days and hide that in my room to at least have something, you know?”</p>
<p>Lily laughs, but is also worried a bit for James.</p>
<p>James sees it and laughs, throwing an arm around her shoulder companionably. “Eh, don’t worry. I’ll be fine. It’s only until Leila returns. Then she’ll live with us and can just tell him he’s horrible with cooking.” He sighs. “I still don’t have the heart. He’s so nice and patient and he’s teaching me so much… It would just sound ungrateful. Leila is much more firm with him.” He thinks for a moment and chuckles. “Well, with everyone, really.” </p>
<p>“Well as an incentive for visiting me, I’ll make sure to feed you well!” she laughs. “But tell me, have you had any updates from Leila in the Celestial Realm?”</p>
<p>“Yeah! I was going to show you some pictures!” He shows a series of pictures he saved in order of every month Leila sent it to them. “Oh and you have GOT to watch this!”</p>
<p>Lily is swooning over the video that Leila made. She hears her singing voice for the first time, together with the heartbeat of the baby and the pictures on where the nephilim features are starting to show. A girl! How perfect! She’s going to tell this to her own demons as soon as James leaves again. She’s sure they would love to hear about this!</p>
<p>“You wouldn’t believe how proud Solomon was looking, when she sent it to us.” James grins. “He’s watching it at least once a day.”</p>
<p>Lily laughs but James notices it sounds a bit strained. “It’s strange for me to think of Solomon that way.” She explains. “My Solomon isn’t really a family man you know? More the...consummate bachelor I suppose.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” James nods. “Leila told me another strange story about Solomon. Via his connection with Barbatos he knows when to start a new family to have a powerful family member like Leila, that he can train and love and keep by his side for a long time… Not necessarily loving the person he’s marrying to make it happen. So, he’s kind of the opportunistic family man?”</p>
<p>“Ugh…I’m not sure what is worse!” Lily rolls her eyes and laughs. “I’m glad that Leila is born like this, but that’s such a weird way of thinking!”</p>
<p>“Yeah, for normal humans, I guess.” James agrees. “But we both know that Solomon is a bit strange. Even though I do like him. He’s strange.”<br/><br/>Lily doesn’t respond in words, she just nods in agreement. <em> The understatement of the century. </em>She thinks to herself. Speaking of Solomon, she wonders when he’ll be back and how he’s going to react when he finds James here. </p>
<p><br/>“So how are you faring so far in your apprentice-ship? Aside from Solomon’s bad cooking that is.” Lily asks with a laugh  as she lifts the pot off the stove to carry it to the sink. </p>
<p>“Here let me.” James offers, being a gentleman. He takes the pot from her hands and drains the water from the noodles for her. </p>
<p>“Thanks!” she beams, it’s nice to see someone help out in a normal way for once. Solomon would have just used his magic and probably tainted the food somehow in the process. While James takes care of the noodles, she gets out a loaf of bread to slice. </p>
<p>Now that dinner is finished, Lily uses a nifty little spell she’s learned. “There, now it’ll stay warm and fresh until we’re ready to eat!” she washes her hands and takes off her apron. After gathering a few Solomon safe snacks, she invites James back to the living room to continue their conversation. </p>
<p>“Remind me to teach you my vanishing spell and you can teach me your keep-it-yummy spell.” James offers. “That way I can keep my leftovers yummy in my room and you can secretly get rid of all Solomon's cooking monstrosities.”</p>
<p>Lily laughs, delighted. “That’s a deal!”</p>
<p>“You asked me how I’m doing in the apprentice-ship, right?” James remembers as they both settle down in the living room with tea and treats. “Well, I honestly have no idea… Thinking about what I’m learning, I’m making progress in using my powers. I can do all the spells and stuff that Solomon is teaching me, eventually. With enough practice. But…”</p>
<p>Lily nods, she knows the feeling. “But he can be very vague, cryptic even. It’s hard to know what he’s really thinking about the progress you’re making..or anything really.”</p>
<p>“He’s King Solomon the Wise and the leader of the Human World magical society, as you might know. So it’s not that strange that he’s going regularly on these mysterious trips, after having read something in the papers. But by the life of me I can’t figure out from the same papers what it could be that he needs to investigate.” </p>
<p>Lily has to suppress an eye roll when James uses the old moniker, ‘<em> Solomon the wise’. </em> It’s often left her speechless on how someone so ‘ <em> wise </em>’ in the ways of the world can be so tragically idiotic when it comes to certain things. Though thinking about how much Leila loves and respects her grandfather, it makes sense to her that James has the same respect for Solomon in this.</p>
<p>“You know, I often think, he thinks it’s charming? Being mysterious and aloof all the time?” Lily says, shaking her head. </p>
<p>“I don’t know? Maybe it’s just because he’s ancient. Thinking we all know the same things he does so there’s no need for him to give explanations?” James offers as an explanation with a shrug. “And on top of that, I never get to go with him, as he tells me I’m still too inexperienced. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to learn that experience if I don’t get to go with him, you know?”</p>
<p>Lily nods again, her eyes are far away though as she thinks about all James has said. “My Solomon never takes me anywhere either.” she confides. “And you know, I’ve had a feeling for awhile now that he’s holding back on what he’s teaching me too.”</p>
<p>“I know I have to learn to be like Leila and find my own answers, but it’s just really not like me… Leila never asked him these things. She’s just as mysterious as he is, sometimes. She did her own investigation on Solomon and Diavolo last year, did you know? You know she sent Shado out to spy for her?” James laughs. “I could tell that Solomon was proud of her creativity. She almost figured everything out before… you know… It all literally went to hell in our reality…”</p>
<p>Leila hadn’t told Lily any of that but she didn’t hold it against her, she had more stressing matters at hand the last time she visited. And at the time they weren’t allowed to talk about it yet. Those are the rules of visiting other realities.</p>
<p>“That sounds like Leila.” Lily says with a warm smile. “But you’re your own person. We’re never going to be Leila. We have to find our own paths for dealing with these things. It doesn’t diminish how amazing you are for even a second.” Lily tries to assure James.</p>
<p>“I know, I can tell that Solomon doesn't expect those things from me yet.” James nods in agreement. “Partly I think he’s protective over me too, wanting me to stay in the house when he’s away on his trips. I guess it makes sense…” There’s a flash of a painful memory crossing his features. “To get Leila to come back to the Devildom, Lord Diavolo hunted me down as well. Planned to use me as bait…” James shivers, remembering. “I’m never going to even tell this to Leila, or she’ll never forgive him. She probably already has a hard time forgiving him for stalking her, but she’s fiercely protective over everyone she loves.”</p>
<p>Lily glowers, <em> he hunted James after everything he put Leila through?! </em> She’s furious all over again. “Maybe he doesn’t deserve to be forgiven..” <br/>“Yeah…” James agrees. “But I think she’s going to give him a second chance anyway, since nobody got hurt. And she’ll be stronger than ever, when she returns. Without the fear of losing her baby or her mates. He won’t know what hit him!” James laughs as if he can barely wait to watch this. “Of course she won’t give him a second chance, if she finds out about this and that wouldn’t be good for bringing harmony in the Three Worlds. And that will result in us being banished from visiting the Devildom and our demons from visiting the Human World… I think she’ll still want to be with her mates, so she’ll sacrifice herself, again, by giving him a second chance.” He sighs, worried. “Another secret I have to keep from her.”</p>
<p>Lily heard Leila’s side, but James' side of things were obviously a bit different from her own experience because of this. “I can’t believe your Diavolo hunted you while mine practically kicked me out.” she chuckles mirthlessly, her eyes wide.</p>
<p>“You know? That’s how it felt for me at first too.” James nods in understanding. “Like, we just got our rings and it was like: ‘good, you’ve done your job bringing balance, now get out’. It made me very sad. Especially since Lucifer was the one who terminated the exchange program, you know? But now I’m proud of him, having done this for us.” He thinks for a bit. “But if nothing like this happened in your reality… Yeah, then basically you got kicked out…” He wraps his arms around Lily in comfort. “One way or another, it still feels they did us wrong, doesn’t it? I don’t know how they think to bring balance and harmony in the Three Worlds if they can’t manage to respect humans first...”</p>
<p><br/>Lily sighs. “It’s been a crazy couple of years…” she glances sideways at James. “I’d assumed you stabbed yourself too, but I need to stop taking for granted that things are always exactly the same for us.” she says in a hushed voice. But who other than James understands better what she’s been through? What they have been through. </p>
<p>James' expression gets worried. “Well, it wasn’t actually me…” He sighs. “I guess that’s the difference in our realities. Leila is there. Solomon did everything to make sure she would survive. And I’m not strong enough to go up against Lucifer when he wanted to stab himself…”</p>
<p>“Oh no!” Lily gasps, thinking of alternate scenarios. Surely James would never stab Lucifer of his own free will…”Don’t tell me that Solomon forced…” She can’t even finish, it’s too awful for her to consider in any reality.</p>
<p>“No, no, no. Nothing like that!” James comforts her as he sees Lily very upset… “Leila jumped in…”</p>
<p>“What?!” Lily is surprised but not at the same time, Leila seems like the type to do this after all. </p>
<p>“Yeah. She jumped in. She wanted to use her force-field to stop it all from happening, but the dagger sliced straight through it and stabbed her, while Lucifer was trying to stab himself.”</p>
<p>“I can barely believe it…” Lily sighs. “I know she survived it, but…”</p>
<p>“Yeah.” James nods. “She does all these stupid, brave things all the time. But it did earn her a Ring as well.” James says proudly. “But it was too scary to watch her lying unconscious, while she was talking with the Angel of Death…”</p>
<p>Lily needs to think about this last bit. She decides to not ask. Leila survived and that's what's important, after all. And James is right: Even if these events were a bit different in their realities, it still sounds that they were equally scary…</p>
<p><br/>Lily gives James a hug, as much for him as herself. “It was an impossible situation, I’m just glad we all survived it.” Lily takes a shuddering breath. “It was the scariest thing I’ve been through in all of this..even more than when….”</p>
<p>“...when Belphegor basically killed us? Yeah…”</p>
<p>“Does Leila...?”</p>
<p>“No. and I’m not going to.” James says determined. “He told me once that he doesn’t want his relationship with her tainted, like it is with mine. He wants it to be pure, even if he’s a demon. I trust he will never hurt her. So, I’m not going to be the one to taint their relationship.”</p>
<p>“I didn’t think so and it wasn’t my place to say anything. I can understand why you haven’t told her. Belphegor deserves to be loved and why taint something beautiful that they have together?” Lily leaves the sauce to simmer and prepares to boil some noodles. </p>
<p>“Belphie has so much regret over that night.” He sighs worried. “He was very clingy in the first year after it happened. Now he’s kinda shifted that to Leila.” He snickers now. “It was love at first sight for him and Satan. She didn’t even realize and thought they were just being weird demons. But she actually loves his clinginess. It relaxes her when she needs it. So, I guess that’s perfect.”</p>
<p>Lily smiles warmly, she has noticed Leila’s reaction to Belphegor comforting her. It’s good that someone with that much temper has someone to make her calm again. She's so happy for Leila and her mates. “My Belphegor is still clingy and possessive, it’s not always bad unless he’s being manipulative. I think maybe my Belphie fell in love with your Leila too.” she frowns a bit and then tries to shake it away. </p>
<p>“Oh…” James looks worried. “Are you sure? I mean, I really hope your Belphie finds someone like Leila too. But that must be very confusing for him, if that’s true…”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I don’t know.” Lily shakes her head. “Maybe he can just sense her feelings via her pact with your Belphie? I could feel a connection with your Mammon too, after all. And Leila and Belphie are both so sensitive.”</p>
<p>“Leila does have a way to connect with people's souls. It’s why she was chosen to have her own Ring. But I’m sure it will be fine…” James tells Lily, as he can see her worried.</p>
<p>“Yeah, they’ll be fine... Have you ever experienced love at first sight James?” Lily asks shyly instead, not wanting to be too blunt in asking about his own lovers. </p>
<p>“Leila always tells me I’m falling in love at first sight all the time…” James thinks out loud. “But you know, maybe it’s just that I’m easy-going, that I like the attention and all that, to be the reason that I’ve had many lovers, before coming to the Devildom. I never was this much in love before I met with Beel and Lucifer…” He laughs. “I’m staying faithful. Hahaha! Leila thinks it’s because they’re my soulmates. Soulmates can recognize each other always. She’s never been that interested in relationships, before she met Satan and Belphie. And look at her now! Almost having her own little family.”</p>
<p><br/>“Soulmates… That sounds beautiful.” Lily sighs, softly smiling. “Do you think soulmates always recognize each other so easily?” she asks, a bit sadly. There was a time she would have liked to believe that Solomon was her soulmate but now she didn’t know. Shouldn’t things be easier if they were?</p>
<p>James sees Lily’s expression and can make an educated guess on what she’s thinking, right now. He pulls her in a one-armed hug and tells her. “I think it’s hard for humans to recognize their soulmates. I think it’s easier for demons. They can see souls, right? Somehow. Leila definitely didn’t recognize Satan and Belphie as such, right away. They had to work hard for her.”</p>
<p><em> Hm, so maybe it’s a family trait then? </em> Lily thinks, then she decides to shake it off for now. “I can honestly barely believe that Lucifer isn’t going crazy around someone like you.” Lily teases.</p>
<p>He keeps laughing, not offended at all. “Yeah, it took him some getting used to, I’m sure. But you know, I’m pretty charming after all.” He grins, wiggling his eyebrows like Asmodeus and Lily burst out laughing. “But seriously, he is what I need. Or else I’ll be just as dumb as any of our demons. And I like to believe that I am what he needs. And Beel… He’s just so sweet, you know? Like a big teddy bear to cuddle with. And I can't resist his sad puppy expression.” James swoons and Lily shakes her head. <em> It’s a good thing that he has Leila, </em> she thinks.</p>
<p>“Beel does have that look down…” Lily takes out her D.D.D. and shows James some of her favorite pictures of her Beelzebub, including the time he halfway turned into a lion. “I almost wished he would have stayed that way.” Lily jokes with a giggle.</p>
<p>“Hey! That gives me an idea.” James pulls out his own phone and scoots closer to Lily so they can take a picture together. They take a nice one together before they descend into silliness, making faces and playing with filters.</p>
<p><br/>This is what Solomon walks into when he arrives back home from the apothecary, his Lily sitting on his couch laughing, making weird faces with some boy.  </p>
<p><em> *ahem* </em> Solomon clears his throat as neither of them noticed him enter the room. </p>
<p>“Oh!” Lily startles for a moment. “You’re back.”</p>
<p>“Don’t sound so enthused.” Solomon replies with dry sarcasm. </p>
<p>“James, this is ‘my’ Solomon, Solomon this is James. Leila’s cousin. He came to visit today!” Lily’s tone of voice moves from formal to excited quickly.</p>
<p>James sticks out his hand to introduce himself to another Solomon with a big grin. This reality traveling stuff is fun!</p>
<p>“I see.” Solomon says, staring at James shrewdly. </p>
<p>“Alrighty then!” James shrugs, pocketing his unshaken hand and turning back to Lily again. <em> Whatever, </em> he thinks. <em> He’s probably thinking all sorts of things. He’ll get over it. </em></p>
<p><br/>There’s an awkward tension in the room that’s too much for Lily to handle. “James! I just remembered. I want to show you something.” she says grabbing his hand. “It’s in my room.”</p>
<p>“Woah.” James says, looking around the room. It’s the same one in Solomon’s house that he sleeps in but it looks nothing the same. “This is way nicer than my version.”</p>
<p>“Solomon re-decorated it with my personal tastes in mind…” she explains.</p>
<p>“Yeah, it’s probably so much nicer than mine because I don’t really care about this stuff, as long as I have the things I need.” He laughs and Lily can already imagine it. “You’re more like Leila in that, I guess. So what did you want to show me?” James asks. </p>
<p>Lily laughs, and sits on her bed with a plop. “Nothing. I just wanted to get away from Solomon…” she admits. </p>
<p>“Heh.” James snickers. “He’s definitely seeing me as some sort of intruder of the happy domestic life you’ve got going on here.”</p>
<p>Lily blushes. It hadn’t escaped her notice the efforts Solomon had been putting in to make her comfortable. He was trying hard to make up for past mistakes. The problem was, he was just making new ones and he was suffocating her at times. </p>
<p>“If you want, I can start gushing over Lucifer and Beel during dinner, so that he knows I’m not the competition?” James offers with a smirk. “Or, you know, I can act that you are the ‘love of my life I will never have’, because you don’t exist in my reality…” He laughs at Lily’s wide, shocked eyes, as she blinks owlishly at him. “Your choice!”</p>
<p>“You’re such a troublemaker!” Lily tries to scold him, hitting him with her pillow as she giggles.</p>
<p>“True, true!” James laughs, not even defending himself. “I learned it all from our demons!”</p>
<p>Lily just gives James another wide eyed stare. <em> Somehow I think you always were. </em>She thinks to herself with a fond smile. </p>
<p>“Is that a bow?” James asks, pointing to the medieval looking weapon hanging out her wall. “You didn’t seem the type.” He says, “You know, because you love animals so much.”</p>
<p>Lily smiles. “Well I grew up learning to hunt. I don’t love the idea of ending an animal's life, but I only hunt what I’m going to eat.” she explains. “Diavolo made that bow for me during my first year. It came in handy more than once.”</p>
<p>“Story-Time!” James cheers and Lily laughs. She starts telling him all about the time she received the bow and the times she was able to use it.</p>
<p><br/>James and Lily spend the rest of the afternoon teaching each other their spells until it’s time for dinner. Solomon magically sets the table while James offers to help Lily in the kitchen. “No, please, you’re our guest.” she smiles, pushing him towards a seat at the table. </p>
<p>Leaving Solomon and James at the table, Lily adds the final touches to the meal before bringing it to the table to be served family style. Solomon uncorks a bottle of wine and pours for everyone while Lily brings warm garlic bread from the oven. </p>
<p>There’s a bit of strained silence as Lily takes her seat. Nervously she begins to heap food onto Jame’s plate for him. “Don’t be shy, I made plenty!” she says. </p>
<p>Solomon wears a stoic expression as he butters his bread, never taking his eyes off of them. He finally has Lily to himself again without those meddling demons always disrupting things and now he has an interloper from another reality to contend with?! <em> Unbelievable. </em> He thinks to himself. </p>
<p>“How was your day? I noticed you didn’t bring anything back from the apothecary?” Lily turns to Solomon after she’s finished heaping pasta onto James' plate. She also wonders how one spends almost an entire day at the apothecary too. Then she remembers what James had told him about his Solomon. <em> Okay, Solomon. </em> She decides. <em> From now on you’re going to be honest with me with this… If you intend to bring me or not: No more lying about it! </em></p>
<p>“Hmm? Oh yes, well I wasn’t shopping for us. I was needed elsewhere.” Solomon responds, serving himself once he realizes that Lily wasn’t going to extend the same courtesy to him that she had to James.</p>
<p>Lily and James exchange a knowing glance. This doesn’t escape Solomon’s notice. </p>
<p>“What made you decide to visit today?” Solomon isn’t happy with his unexpected visitor, but he knows that he will get in an argument with Lily, if he will keep this impolite attitude towards her friend. <em> Let’s see how close they are. </em></p>
<p>“Oh you know.” James sends him a winning smile after just stuffing a huge bite in his mouth. <em> Disgusting, </em> Solomon thinks, but he can’t help some of his walls already coming down. “I figured Lily had some time for me, since my Solomon went out on some investigation. I thought the same sort of thing would be going on here.”</p>
<p>“Hm… Is that so?”</p>
<p>“Yup. And there's no way to announce myself, or make an appointment of course.” James tells him animatedly. “So I figured I would just pop in unannounced.”</p>
<p>“I can’t say that I love the idea of unexpected guests.” Solomon says truthfully. Earning a glare from Lily.</p>
<p>“Yeah, Lucifer doesn’t like those unexpected things either.” James nods in understanding, purposefully ignoring the meaning of Solomon's words. “But that’s because he’s old, you know?”</p>
<p>Lily snorts, almost spitting her drink out in the process. James is so cheeky, she loves it.<br/><br/>“I’m guessing you feel some pressure, being compared to my counterparts’ granddaughter?” Solomon asks. He’s actually asking for more information about the granddaughter he never had.</p>
<p>“Solomon isn’t comparing us.” James shrugs. “I feel he’s giving me the same kind of teachings, but if there’s someone who is doing the comparing, it’s actually me… Even though I know I shouldn’t, since I just started my apprentice-ship and she’s almost finished hers. Of course she knows more than me, right?” He snickers cheekily. “I mean… We’re talking about someone who invented something to transport someone across realities! On PURPOSE!” He emphasizes that last word with a cheeky grin to Solomon and Lily can barely keep a straight face when Solomon narrows his eyes slightly. He knows he is being mocked by his counterparts’ apprentice, right now. “How can you not compare yourself to that? So tell me Solomon, were you able to replicate some of the spells and enchantments that Leila invented already?” James counters, trying to let Solomon compare himself with the granddaughter he never had.</p>
<p>A<em> t least the boy isn’t as much of an idiot as he looks. </em>Solomon thinks to himself. Giving James one of his signature smiles. “The ear plug enchantments were easy to replicate. A signature of a well crafted spell.” he replies in a nonchalant manner. “I can’t say I approve of this, though.” he waves his hand towards the reality turner around James neck. “No matter how impressive it is.”</p>
<p>“Well, at least it’s proven to not be a one-way ticket.” James shrugs unconcerned, making Solomon narrowing his eyes once more. “And of course she would have never even thought of it, if she hadn’t met Lily…” With that, he takes another huge bite, sending Lily a wink.</p>
<p>“Indeed.” Solomon says before turning his attention to his own food. After all, it was his own recklessness that led to his current predicament. He only had himself to blame for his careless mistake. That doesn’t mean he has to like the consequences though.</p>
<p>This goes on during the entire dinner. James refuses to let himself be made uncomfortable by Solomon. It’s amusing to Lily and even Solomon can’t help a small smile now and then. He still can’t make himself to just accept James presence in his house, however.</p>
<p><br/>Once everyone is done eating, Lily starts cleaning up the plates and James jumps up to help her. Not to be outdone, Solomon recites the cleaning spell he’s created specifically for his kitchen. The dirty dishes disappear from James and Lily’s hands. The kitchen is spotless. Even the leftovers are packed away in a large container. Lily rolls her eyes, he’s such a show off. </p>
<p>“Here James! Take this with you.” Lily hands him the large container full of the leftover pasta. </p>
<p>“Why are you giving him all of our leftovers?” Solomon asks, sounding petulant. “Surely my ‘other’ self feeds you well, does he not?”</p>
<p>“Uhh..” James seems at a loss as he rubs the back of his neck, then decides in his answer. “Of course he does! But he’s not nearly as good a cook as Lily!” He isn’t exactly lying here, right? But it’s an acceptable answer for Solomon. He likes Lily’s cooking as well.</p>
<p>“Don’t be rude.” Lily huffs at Solomon before turning her bright smile on James. “Don’t worry about it.”</p>
<p>James is saved from any more awkwardness because he promptly disappears, leftovers in hand. </p>
<p>“Finally.” Solomon says under his breath.</p>
<p>“Did you say something?” Lily asks, giving him a look she’s adopted from Lucifer.</p>
<p>“Hm? Me? Nothing.” Solomon says, giving her his best smile. Lily rolls her eyes and plops back into a chair since there’s nothing for her to clean up now. “I’m going to need to re-work my wards.” Solomon says off-handedly. “It disturbs me if that boy can just pop into my home whenever he feels like it.”</p>
<p>Lily rolls her eyes. “THAT <b>boy </b> is YOUR apprentice in another reality. Shouldn’t you have more faith in yourself or other selves?” Lily asks him. “Besides, just because you’re a million years old doesn’t give you the right to call James ‘ <em> boy </em>’,” Then, if something suddenly comes to mind. “Leila was able to pop into the House of Lamentation, which is warded even heavier than your house. I don’t think a ward helps, when they’re already inside the house in another reality…”</p>
<p>“Fine.” Solomon mumbles. “I’ll buy a guard dog then.” He laughs when Lily turns around to give him another piece of her mind. “Just kidding. I guess I behaved a little childish. He seems honestly like a good kid…”</p>
<p>“He is.” Lily nods and gives Solomon a smile, satisfied that he at least acknowledged that he was behaving childish. After filling him in on the news James told her about Leila, she excuses herself to her room to get ready for bed. Taking out her D.D.D. she decides to update her demons too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>House of Lamentation (8)</b>
</p>
<p><b>&gt; Lily:</b> Everybody, I have news!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Yay! <b>(Cheering-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Mammon:</b> Oi! Ya don’t even know what the news is, ya nut!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Well, whatever it is, it’s obviously happy news.<br/><b>&lt; Satan:</b> Have you learned to summon us?</p>
<p>Several Celebrating-Demon stickers appear and Lily rolls her eyes. They don’t even let her talk in the house chat sometimes.</p>
<p><b>&lt; Lucifer:</b> Let’s just give Lily a chance to tell us. <b>(Sighing-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Belphegor:</b> If it has to do with Solomon, I’m not interested.<br/><b>&lt; Beelzebub:</b> Lily, have you ever tasted Caviar? And how does that compare to the Devildom equivalent of Hippocampi Eggs?</p>
<p>Everyone reacts to Beelzebub now for changing the subject into something food-related again. <em> Fine, </em> she decides. <em> I will just drop the bomb, without waiting for them to finish their discussion. </em></p>
<p><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> And besides, you owe ME money for takin’ ya to that modelin’ gig with Sucre Frenzy!<br/><b>&lt; Leviathan</b> : As if!<br/><b>&gt; Lily:</b> Leila is expecting a girl! <b>(Happy-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Leviathan:</b> And another thing, Mammon. You broke my most prized and rare figurine!<br/><b>&lt; Leviathan:</b> Wait…REALLY?! <b>(Cheering-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Satan:</b> A girl? Really?<br/><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> Howd’ya know?!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Yay! <b>(Cheering-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> See? I told you it was something happy!<br/><b>&lt; Lucifer:</b> That’s wonderful news, Lily<br/><b>&lt; Beelzebub:</b> Yeah, thanks for sharing, Lily!</p>
<p>Lily tells about James visit and how he showed her pictures and a video and how you clearly could see little wings and a little tail forming. The discussion is lively and goes on and on but Lily can’t help noticing how Belphegor isn’t participating. She hopes he’s okay and has just fallen asleep again. “I’m sure he’s fine.” She says to herself, a bit worried for her sensitive friend.</p>
<p>Before she sets aside her phone she sends one more picture of her and James together. </p>
<p><b>&gt; Lily:</b> This is James! Now you know what he looks like if he ever appears around you guys. So BE NICE!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Ooh! I wouldn’t mind it if he pops up out of nowhere on top of me!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus: (Demon-Blowing-Kiss sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Belphegor: (Rolling-Eyes-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Mammon:</b> Ya pervert! <br/><b>&lt; Lucifer:</b> Is that some sort of family trait? <br/><b>&lt; Lucifer:</b> Dropping in unannounced? <b>(Sighing-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&gt; Lily:</b> Just be NICE, okay?!<br/><b>&lt; Beelzebub:</b> Don’t worry, Lily. We’ll be nice. We like Leila too, after all.<br/><b>&lt; Satan:</b> He really does look a bit like Leila.<br/><b>&lt; Leviathan:</b> I hope he’s nice, like her.<br/><b>&gt; Lily:</b> He definitely is! I bet you all get along with him instantly!<br/><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> As if! <br/><b>&lt; Beelzebub:</b> Mammon we all know you’ll be the first to like him.<br/><b>&lt; Mammon:</b> What’s that supposed ta mean?!<br/><b>&lt; Asmodeus:</b> Who’re James lovers in his reality?<br/><b>&lt; Lucifer: (Glaring-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Asmodeus: (Winking-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&gt; Lily: </b> Well it’s Beel…..and...Lucifer.<br/><b>&lt; Leviathan: </b> ROFL!<br/><b>&gt; Lily: (Unamused-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Leviathan:</b> Wait! Are you serious?<br/><b>&lt; Lucifer: (Shocked-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Beelzebub: (Shocked-Demon sticker)<br/></b> <b>&lt; Satan: (Laughing-Demon sticker)</b></p>
<p>This discussion goes on for a while too, until it’s suddenly stopped. <em> Hm… Lucifer must have hung them all from the ceiling. </em> Lily draws her conclusion. It’s good to know things haven’t changed much with her demons, she decides. With a smile on her face, she falls asleep. Dreaming about having everyone she loves around her again.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/></p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thanks for reading! We'd love to know who here has been reading both our stories and what you think of this little mash up we've got going with Leila, Lily and James? We love reading your comments =D</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. The Other Solomon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Lily has finally finished creating her own reality-turner and ends up joining James for sorcery lessons with 'the other Solomon.'</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span><br/>“Lily, where are you going?” Solomon asks, looking up from some dusty old tome. Lily is dressed to go out, she’s holding a large tupperware full of the food she spent all morning cooking. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I left you some dinner in the fridge.” she tells him. “I’m going to see James and I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James?!” Solomon asks. “How…” then he sees one of those inventions he noticed on James' neck last time, around Lily’s neck: A small hourglass pendant with gold-colored sand in it. Lily has worked hard and followed Leila’s instructions down to the letter. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lily it’s too dangerous...let me at least look over your spellwork first.” Solomon stands up and begins to stride her way. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily has worked too hard to be thwarted by Solomon now, before he can pull anything on her, she spins the hourglass quickly and haphazardly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon lunges forward but his hands clasp around air. “Dammit!” he curses, inside the empty house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’s considering summoning Barbatos to get her back immediately, but then decides against it. She will never forgive him if he ruined her day like that. But he hopes she did everything correctly. This is going to be a long day, waiting for his Lily to come back. Deep down he knows that James isn’t the one he’s worried about, Lily told him about his visit after all and it didn’t seem anything romantic had happened. But James lives with another version of him... He sighs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>Lily appears in the other reality. This ride was much smoother than the way she remembered before. She’s giddy with excitement that her spellwork held up. It worked! Hearing voices in the kitchen, she makes her way there. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello?” she announces herself softly, hoping not to startle anyone. As she comes into the kitchen she sees James working something in a mortar and pestle. His Solomon is pulling more ingredients out of the cupboard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Make sure to be careful.” She hears Solomon tell James, sounding absentminded as he rummages around in the cupboard. “There’s not supposed to be any blood or sweat ending up in the mixture…” </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Lily!” James says with surprise and delight when he looks up to see her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi! I brought dinner.” she waves the tupperware. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Setting down the pestle, James walks over and gives her a big hug before taking the tupperware and peeking inside. “Lily you’re an angel.” he says a bit dramatically. Lily giggles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Be careful James, or you might start sounding like Beel.” she teases him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, there you are.” Solomon greets her, as if he has been expecting her. As James puts away the dinner she brought them, he continues. “Nice to see you again, Lily. I’m afraid you’ve come during one of James’ lessons, so now it’s your lesson too. Put on an apron to protect those nice clothes of yours and come mince the next ingredient.” he instructs her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James gives Lily an apologetic look but Lily simply shrugs. She’d managed to play hooky on lessons with one Solomon only to be stuck with another. She has a feeling this Solomon would be more strict in his teaching methods too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon is amused when Lily walks straight to the drawer where the aprons are kept folded, apparently his other self has similar ideas of organization. Lily dons her apron and uses the scrunchie on her wrist to tie up her hair into a messy bun. Standing next to James she takes a glance at the ingredients they are working with and recognizes the potion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“An Elixir of Vitality?” Lily asks. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Very good.” Solomon nods with an approving smile. “I feel it is important for James to know and master these things as soon as possible. As I’m sure you’ve heard some stories of what went down in our reality, I’m not taking any risks in letting one of Leila’s favorite people stand defenseless.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How could you tell with just the stuff that’s on the table?” James asks curiously as he’s still struggling with his mortar and pestle. “We’ve only just started.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily smiles shyly. “I may have only told Leila, but potions are my specialty, especially those related to healing...you know how I’ve always loved animals and being outside? Well it turns out I have an affinity to nature and it’s only become stronger since…” she shrugs, glancing down at her ring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, let’s see what you’ve learned then.” Solomon says with a wry grin. “I’ll let you take the lead and walk James through the steps.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily blushes, wishing she had kept her mouth shut. Now she’s nervous!</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Wow.” James admires Lily. “You already know what some of your natural abilities are! I’m still trying to find out what is mine.” He tells her animatedly while they get to work again. “Leila has her shields and force fields and everything that comes with that. And of course her sensitivity to connect with people's souls. And she’s really good at inventing new spells and stuff. You have affinity with healing and nature…” He sighs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It will surface when you need it, James.” Solomon tells them. “Just like it did with Leila. I’m sure something in Lily’s past must have triggered her innate abilities to come to the surface as well, and now she can finally access them fully.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s true...I spent so much of my childhood alone with only nature and animals around.” she says with a shrug and a bit of a blush from the praise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Looking over what they have done so far and the remaining ingredients, she explains to James the proper technique for mincing the yarrow for maximum potency. As she walks him through the steps, Solomon the ever silent observer, she realizes something is missing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Keep stirring as it simmers.” she tells James. Solomon watches as she walks over to one of his ingredient cabinets. He can’t help but be amused when she uses the correct spell to unlock the warded cabinet and fishes out a cacao bean. Next she fetches a microplaner, again from the correct drawer.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>“A cacao bean?” Solomon suddenly interrupts. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James scans over the recipe in the book, there’s no mention of a cacao bean anywhere. Lily blinks at Solomon and realizes she may have overstepped her bounds, roaming around his kitchen as if it was hers. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Ugh. Stupid Lily. You should have asked first.</span>
  </em>
  <span> She scolds herself. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The cacao bean opens the vascular system and increases brain function, allowing the potion to have a deeper and more lasting effect.” she explains herself quietly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon smiles. “And did you come up with this yourself or did the other ‘me’ teach you this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily blushes once more. “Well he, the ‘other’ you, gave me a list of healing potions and gave me the task of figuring out how to improve them.” she explains, remember how he put her to the task when he discovered her yawning and bored during a potions lesson one day. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh.” James groans. “Please don’t give him any ideas!” he laments after seeing the look on Solomon's face. Lily gives him an apologetic look. James still makes a note in the recipe book about the cacao bean and Solomon nods approvingly to the both of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That does seem like a good way to spend your time on a rainy day.” Solomon agrees. “I will let you do this together with Leila, however. It will be good practice for her, before she takes on her own apprentices. And I know she’s more of a researcher than you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, that sounds so lovely!” Lily sighs. Doing these kinds of research with both Leila and James? That would be so much fun.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon smiles. “I’m sure it can be arranged on another one of your visits. Now tell me, how is the Elixir coming along?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, um…” Lily realizes that she’s been distracted from her teaching job and checks on what James is doing. To her relief he was still following the recipe and her instructions. “I’ll show you what to do with the cacao bean, James…” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>After the Elixir is completed, Solomon inspects the end product with a critical eye. Then he nods in approval and bottles the contents of the cauldron in several little flasks with a simple bottling spell. “I’m interested to see how this improved version will work, Lily. But let’s not waste them.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He brings the tray with bottled Elixir to the storage cabinet, where Lily notices a whole lot more potions and elixirs. Curiously she stands next to Solomon to inspect the names. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Eye drops of clarity, false death, darkvision, stoneskin, bottled beast?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Lily quirks an eyebrow, realizing that her own Solomon must be hiding some interesting potions in their own house. For now she tucks that information aside, looks like she’ll have some investigating to do when she’s back home. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Here, this is one of the potions Leila invented herself. Using Kerberos-fur.” Solomon gives Lily a small bottle. “You might find it interesting to replicate it yourself, once you get home. I won’t be telling you the use…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily smiles. She knows what he means by that. Like her own Solomon, this is a challenge for her from him. A sort of homework assignment. She puts the small bottle in her pocket and nods. She can barely wait to start on this!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright, let us get some fresh air and move on to some defensive and offensive spell work.” Solomon announces. “I bet both of you are interested to find out more about Leila’s natural force-field abilities?” They both nod eagerly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily feels excited and nervous at the same time. Her own Solomon has drilled her relentlessly on healing and protective magics and potions. Every time she pushes him to teach her something else, he pushes back with one excuse or another. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>Solomon creates a portal that transports all of them to a large plateau in the mountains. There is no civilization in sight for miles and miles. He nods satisfied after he senses the surroundings. “We can practice here undisturbed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not sure how long I have…” Lily starts a bit doubtful. Very worried to get stranded in the middle of nowhere on top of a rock.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon smiles. “Don’t worry, you have plenty of time. Now, take note, both of you…” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he launches into a lecture about shields and force fields. How to summon them and how to maintain them. How to turn them into a weapon to blast enemies away from you and how to put them on objects or other people. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Leila used her force-field on Lord Diavolo once.” James tells Lily quietly, but Lily suspects that Solomon still hears him as she sees a proud smirk appear on his face. “She froze him by accident. I saw it, or I wouldn’t have believed it. It was awesome!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes.” Solomon reacts now to the story. “Barbatos told me about that. He presumed that it was a combination of her force-field, her Ring of Souls and her connection to Barbatos time-abilities that made her able to cast a time-freezing spell on Lord Diavolo on instinct.” There’s a dangerous flickering in his eyes that Lily has only seen once on her own Solomon before. “He must have scared her a lot, for her to react so extremely defensive.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, he basically abducted her to the garden, while Luke and Barbatos were baking something.” James continues his story to Lily, who can barely believe it. “She was terrified. But Barbatos just laughed like he was amused that Leila put Lord Diavolo in his place. Literally.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Our Diavolos seem so different.” Lily shakes her head. “At least I hope our Diavolo is different...we don’t have a Leila in our reality. I’d hate to have to square off against him.” she shudders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just be grateful. Not the part where you don’t have your own Leila. Though you already do have your own, we can share.” James laughs and Lily smiles. She likes that. “What I mean to say is, be grateful your Diavolo seems more normal. She told me that she’s been practicing to cast this type of force-field on purpose now. Just to be prepared.” James grins. “I would really love to see her do it again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It is a very good example of one of the uses of shields and force-fields. But I’m afraid it is a bit too advanced for today’s lesson.” With that, Solomon continues with his lecture for a few more minutes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After all of this, he lets them both try to summon their own shields and teaches them more practical techniques along the way. Both of them struggle with it at first, but with practice eventually they can do a little battle against each other. It’s nothing serious and ends up in giggles, but Solomon is still smiling.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Lily dusts herself off. She can’t remember having so much fun during a magic lesson. She wishes she had someone to practice with at home. She’s anxious for some paper and pen so she can write down notes on her observations of this lesson. Noticing this, Solomon materializes some for her with a smirk, on the paper is already the spell written that she needs to learn to do it herself, next time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not bad at all for first attempts.” He says, with a warm squeeze on James and Lily’s shoulders. “We will practice this more often from now on, James.” Then he makes a portal again. “Let’s return home, so that the two of you can do some catching up. I will make sandwiches to go with the tea…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, uh…” Lily and James look at each other with a panicked expression. “You know what, Solomon? Let me start on that, you have already done so much for us today…” James starts weakly, thinking for a better excuse. “It gives me the opportunity to show off my cooking skills to Lily for a change.” He ends with a brilliant smile, knowing that Solomon understands reasons like this. Since he likes showing off his cooking, or whatever it’s called that Solomon does, himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Very well.” Solomon smiles and both Lily and James let out a small sigh of relief. “In that case, I will drill our guest with questions about my counterpart.” He winks and Lily can’t help blushing a bit. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Great,</span>
  </em>
  <span> she thinks. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Well, at least he’s not cooking.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>Lily did her very best to try to avoid Solomon by helping James with lunch but she was unable to escape the clever sorcerer. Now she’s sitting at the table with him, alone, trying to hide behind her tea cup. Praying to whatever gods that will hear her plea, that he doesn’t ask anything too personal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My counterpart must be proud that his apprentice was able to pull off the delicate spell work that Leila’s invention requires.” Solomon finally says to her after an uncomfortable amount of silence. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily tries not to choke on her tea when she remembers the look on ‘her’ Solomon’s face right before she vanished into this reality. “Uh...well…” she stammers, blinking at him as she searches for the right words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Or perhaps you snuck off without his knowing?” he asks, gauging her reaction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He knows..” Lily admits. “But he didn’t approve of my coming. I made the reality-turner in secret...” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>”I see…” Solomon rubs his chin as he looks at Lily intensely. “You must be more important to him than he would like to admit. Well, in that case he will just have to learn that birds sing the best songs while they’re free.” Lily smiles shyly in response, sipping her tea. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that, he smiles kindly to her and moves away from the more personal questions and asks about her training. Lily still feels like Solomon draws all kinds of conclusions about her progress as he animatedly talks and listens to her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>When James comes out of the kitchen with a huge plate filled with sandwiches the atmosphere relaxes again for Lily. It’s not that she doesn’t like James and Leila’s Solomon, but he acts to her more like… He’s her grandfather too? In a way? It’s not unpleasant per se, but it’s certainly uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to look at Solomon as a grandfather figure when she’s had sex with his counterpart! She shudders inwardly and tries to shake it off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have you been able to summon any of your demons?” James asks Lily as he sits down to eat lunch with them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily shakes her head. “Not yet.” she says after she’s finished chewing and swallowing her bite. “This is a great sandwich.” She compliments him. “I hope I’ll be able to soon. We talk all the time but it’s not the same. I really miss them.” Her Solomon certainly hasn’t been in any hurry to help her with that aspect of her training either. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have to get your learners-license first.” Solomon tells them absentmindedly while browsing the papers. “I’m not sure if I have mentioned that already?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both stare at him in silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I guess I haven’t then.” He concludes with an infuriating smirk. “There are certain rules for sorcerers. Sure, there are witches and warlocks and satanists, as they call themselves, who summon demons haphazardly. And get in trouble with them all the time…” He glances at the papers again. “But I’m going to teach you the correct way, James. I’m sure your Solomon feels the same, Lily. Summoning demons across worlds requires more finesse. They’re dangerous beings, after all. Even though obviously you can start friendships with some of them as well.” He smiles at the two of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, when do I get to have my license?” James asks with a bit of a disappointed frown.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“All in due time.” Solomon focuses himself on lunch and his papers again, as if the discussion is closed and James sighs, looking at Lily.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily offers him a sympathetic look. She hopes that’s the only reason her own Solomon has been putting it off everytime she asks. “So I bet you and Leila collected special gifts from each of your demons too?” she asks. “I wonder if they gave us the same things?” she wonders with a smile. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We have split them up.” James laughs as he sees Lily’s face. “I know that sounds weird. But Leila and I are very close. We share six out of our eight demons and they all love us equally, even if sometimes a bit differently, obviously.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh? So Leila has made more pacts.” Lily asks. Last time they spoke there was not really the time or place to talk about those things.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes.” James nods. “In the last few crazy weeks it all went really fast. Asmo, Levi and Beel followed each other in asking her for a pact very quickly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily nods, smiling. “That’s wonderful.” Lily understands why Leila was hesitant, she too had never planned on making pacts with demons and extending her life. But she couldn’t imagine not having pacts with her family now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyway, we decided to, both of us ask four of our demons. Leila asked Satan, Belphie, Asmo and Barbatos, obviously. While I asked Lucifer, Mammon, Levi and Beel. I bet they gave us the same things, though. Our lives are going parallel for the most part, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay then.” Solomon joins the conversation again. “I always meant to ask about what you have gotten, but I never seem to get around to it. Let’s compare the two of you. As a small test in how similar your separate realities are.” He materializes a pen and paper and looks at them expectantly, but with a bit of a mischievous smirk. “For the record, I don’t need to hear all the details with your lovers and Leila’s mates…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily glances at James and giggles. She can imagine the dynamics there are even livelier than what she’s used to. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>“Alright. Let’s start with the easiest one.” Lily grins. “Lucifer.” she holds up her hand and wiggles her ring finger. “Although I’m sure his reasons were much different.” she giggles again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well apart from him being proud of me for having received it, because he loves me, Lucifer was mostly proud of me having it, because together with Leila and Solomon it connects the three of us in a special way. We performed a special ritual, because Leila has a Ring too. It made the three of us equals in power.” James tells her. “There is actually a third Ring, you know? It binds us together.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily remembers the special glow that Leila’s ring emitted the last time she saw her. Is that the ring James is referring to? Did she imagine it that her ring reacted to it as well? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wondered about that..we’ve never heard of a third ring in our reality. But I felt like my ring reacted to hers the last time I saw Leila…” Lily drifts off in thought, wondering what the differences mean. Was there another ring in her reality? Would they ever know who was meant to wear it, if there was? “My Lucifer told me he would have never given his ring to any human as an Angel.” she looks fondly at her own ring. “It still feels odd to wear something that had belonged to him for so long, but you should have seen him, all puffed up like the proud older brother he is.” she giggles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, he told me something similar.” James nods. “Proud of me wearing his ring. Proud of the power I found in myself now. I think it all makes him extra proud, haha!” Then his eyes suddenly go wide as if something comes to mind. “Oh! Do you think he thinks I’m engaged with him now that I have his ring?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily burst into giggles. James could have thought about that sooner! Then James grins and shrugs and laughs with her. It really doesn’t matter much to him, he’s never choosing to be with someone other than Lucifer and Beelzebub anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I had to search for Mammon for three days.” James complains. “I really thought he wouldn’t want to give me something and had been avoiding me…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aww!” Lily laughs. “Did you really think that? You know Mammon probably loves us more than any of them.” she teases. “I like to keep mine on me as a lucky charm.” she says, fishing out Mammon’s Harrison Porter keychain. “I didn’t need two, so I gave him mine.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I did that too!” James grins. “It was only until I summoned him, he told me. He wants it back, hahaha!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mine said the exact same thing!” Lily laughs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Leviathan came to my room with a whole bunch of stuff that I should bring to the Human World with me.” Lily tells James. “Does he really think I’m as strong as a demon?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But it wasn’t what he actually gave me.” She continues. “It was…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The original script of the play With Me…!” James says excitedly. “Right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right!” Lily beams and James holds up his hand to high five her. “So far we got the same things!” She tells Solomon who nods, grinning as he takes notes. Or is he just doodling?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I did expect some sort of book from Satan.” Lily begins. “But I was surprised by which book he chose.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Satan gave the book to Leila.” James laughs. “Of course she didn’t understand it at all. Not until he told her the whole story about the switched bodies.” He leans over conspiratorially. “Imagining her Satan in Lucifer's body… She didn’t like the idea of that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily breaks out into another round of giggles. It was weird enough for her and neither of them are her lovers. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But he told her about how this helped him not hating Lucifer anymore and that it helped him decide to make a real pact with me. And…” He glances over to Solomon who frowns. “Leila and Satan had a bit of a rocky start, due to some love potion that ended up in the soup.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh not the Hellfire Newt Syrup!” Lily gasps. <br/></span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Yup.” James nods. “They went researching the effects together, since they’re kind of the same that way and then the potion kicked in…” James continues the story, as Solomon is scratching the paper irritated now. After all this time, he still doesn’t like the idea of Leila being in danger like that. “It made him hunt Leila, and only thanks to my pact with him, I could stop him. So he was grateful for that, since now he’d never hurt her and they are together now… Thanks to that book, in a way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily nods, her eyes wide. “That was not a fun day.” she shudders in remembrance. “Imagine if the people, er demons, you think of as your brothers start making advances!” Lily shakes her head. “Unfortunately it wasn’t the first or last time either, there was also an incident with some pudding Diavolo let me try…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Diavolo did all kinds of strange things.” James laughs. “I actually thought he was a good guy, until I noticed what he did to Leila. So, let’s not talk about him now. What about the twins? Belphie gave his star to Leila, saying that she gave him Lilith’s star. I swear, he’s turning back into an angel when he’s around her.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily snorts an abrupt laugh when James describes him this way, her’s has his moments for sure but an angel...that’s a stretch. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Heh. I know, right?” James laughs too. “Only when he’s around her, though. He’s still a brat. Beel gave me his star, saying something similar. They can look at Lilith’s star now. Those two are just too cute sometimes, when they are like this…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah... “ Lily nods, smiling. “I might have been the most touched by the twins, who gave me their stars. But I’m also confused by this. How does this work for summoning? Can you really give someone a star? How do I use something I can’t even see in this world?” she voices her concerns and glances at Solomon to see if he has any insight that he’s willing to provide.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can you imagine the star in the expanse as you close your eyes?” He simply asks. “When you can, you know it’s there. You don’t only have to summon your friends or lovers when you hold or see the item. You know you have it, because they have given it to you. That’s all you need to remember. When the time comes.” He ends sternly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily nods, thinking over his words. She supposes that makes enough sense if that’s all it requires. “So did Leila do selfies with Asmo or did you all three do them together?” Lily wonders. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just Leila and Asmo.” James tells her. “He’s completely in love with her as well, but Leila doesn’t want to think about that with him. Life is already complicated enough as is, for her. Asmo loves me too, but more in the way of friends with benefits kind of way? If I would give him those benefits.” James rolls his eyes with a smirk. “That’s Asmo, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily laughs. “Sounds about right. I think he’s finally accepted the brotherly role I’ve assigned him but still finds ways to tease me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Brotherly role?” James laughs. “It seems like you have a brother/sister relationship with all your demons?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily nods. “In no way have I taken Liliths place but I am the little sister in the house.” she grins. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Lily looks at him curiously. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James smiles at her mischievously. “I’m just wondering why none of your demons made a move is all.” he shrugs. Lily glances at Solomon who narrows his eyes at James.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily shrugs, blushing a bit. “Some of them tried in the early days but I just didn’t love them that way. What I needed was family.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James smiles, feeling bad for teasing her in front of Solomon. “Well, now your family has only gotten bigger.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>After lunch, Solomon makes himself scarce as James and Lily hang out in the living room. With Solomon gone, James looks at Lily. “Hey, I’m sorry for teasing you earlier. You’re just so guarded about your love life while Leila and I have both opened up.” he tells her, earning a guilty look from Lily. “I’m not saying that to make you feel bad.” he insists. “It’s just Leila and I have pretty much figured out you have or had a thing with Solomon from your reality...and we just want you to know that you don’t have to hide it from us, whatever makes you happy is cool with us.” He ends with giving her a warm encouraging smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily was embarrassed but now she feels a sense of relief. “It’s not that I didn’t trust you with it. It’s just..strange I guess considering he’s Leila’s grandfather in this reality.” she makes a weird face and James laughs. “But honestly, it’s a relief to have this conversation. In my reality, no one is really okay with me and Solomon being together for various reasons...except maybe Asmo..” Lily admits. “And we’re not together anymore but I still love him, so it’s complicated.” she sighs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James nods and just gives her a hug. “Well, Leila and I are always here to talk. Just maybe don’t tell Leila about any of the spicy stuff.” he laughs and Lily can’t help giggling too.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>After Lily disappears back to her own reality, Solomon suddenly appears and James wonders where he’s been loitering around the whole time. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You shouldn’t tease the girl so.” Solomon lectures James.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James smiles. “Probably not, but we had a good conversation because of it...sooo no regrets.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just remember she is not used to you yet, like Leila is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James nods earnestly. It’s true. Where he knows that Leila will just try to punch him if he teases her too much, Lily won’t and maybe just start feeling shy or uncomfortable around him. And that is definitely not how he wants her to feel. He will try to remember it</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>When Lily suddenly finds herself home, the house is hazy with smoke and something smells terrible. Walking into the kitchen she finds the table full of unidentifiable casserole type dishes and Solomon is hunched over the stove. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Oh no...he’s stress cooking</span>
  </em>
  <span>...she thinks to herself, her nose wrinkled. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Solomon?” Lily gently calls out to him. “I’m home.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It’s almost funny to see him startle as she calls his name, it's very rare that she can ever catch him unaware. He must have been deep in his thoughts. Once he turns around and sees her, relief floods him and he closes the distance between them and holds her tightly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pulling away from her, he adopts a stoic look. “You missed your lesson today.” he says with disapproval. “As my apprentice I expect you to take your lessons seriously.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Actually...I had a lesson today.” she says. Concentrating, she’s able to manifest a shield around her, pushing Solomon away another step. It doesn’t last long and she finds herself feeling very tired afterwards. “It’s one of Leila’s natural abilities. But everyone can learn it with practice.” She beams up to him proudly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon's emotions flicker wildly on his face for a moment, before settling into his normal calm. “Apparently my counterpart worked you to the bone today.” he says, guiding her over to the couch.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t think so.” Lily argues. “It was really fun learning with James. I took so many notes,” she says, pulling papers out of her bag. “The other Solomon even let me teach James the Elixir of Vitality. I taught him the trick with the cacao bean.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She starts to enthusiastically tell him everything from the moment she arrived at James' reality. Solomon isn’t sure what to think of all of this. On one hand he is glad that she had a good day and learned so many new things. And even got to show off some of her skills to his counterpart’s apprentice. On the other hand, he is worried that she learned some dangerous magic. Not that he thinks his counterpart wouldn’t know what to do… But why teach an apprentice this level of magic already, if it’s not her natural ability? Lily’s talents lay with her affinity with nature and healing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...James says he hasn’t found out what his natural abilities are, yet…” He hears her say, probably expecting an answer from him as she continues with. “How does someone find those out? And what are yours?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They surface due to circumstances.” He explains and Lily remembers the other Solomon said something similar. “I have worked my whole life to get my other skills at the same level as my natural abilities, so I’m afraid I couldn’t tell you what exactly is my strong suit…” He rubs his chin in thought and Lily knows he's not boasting, he has just genuinely forgotten. Makes sense, she supposes with a smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re not going to try to let me forget all what I learned today, right Solomon?” Lily asks pleadingly. “You’re going to help me with this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course, now that you have learned some of the basics, it would be a waste to let it fade.” He promises her. “But Lily, you have to understand that this is difficult magic and it will be a slow process. I’m honestly wondering why James is learning this already…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily feels herself relax when he promises her that. Then she ponders over his words for a moment before answering. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s probably because in their reality Lord Diavolo seems more dangerous to Leila and him.” Lily answers a bit worried and Solomon nods. “He wants them to get on his level with defensive techniques fast…” She smiles thinking about how much the other Solomon loves his granddaughter and how that care extends to James as well. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I suppose that makes sense.” He sighs. “I hope we don’t get the same circumstances. But it’s true that there is no harm in trying to be prepared…” Lily hears he is reluctant to let her learn this, but she knows he wouldn’t have promised her if he wasn’t planning on following through.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not too worried about our Diavolo but I do want to learn these things. I don’t want to have to rely on you or Mammon or any of the others my whole life. I want to be fierce like Leila, I want to be able to protect the people I care about too.” she tells him with a soft voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His heart clenches. It’s not the first time he has to remind himself that he’s the one who took her on as his apprentice. He has to think of the greater good. As much as he sometimes wishes she was just the naive little Lily flower, someone fragile and gentle he could shelter away from the world and keep safe. That’s not who she is though. Someday her powers will eclipse his own and he has to help her flourish and bloom. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know you do, my little huntress.” he finally says and plants a chaste kiss on the top of her head and pulls her into his side. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know..” Lily begins, resting her head on his chest. “The other you had a very similar organizational system. But I can’t help thinking you’ve been holding out on me. He had some very interesting potions that I’ve never seen around here.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon chuckles. “I hope he didn’t give away all our secrets?” he teases, diverting from the subject. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily begins to tell him about the potion and the homework assignment she was given. Solomon begins to give her a couple pointers on how to begin her assignment when he realizes she’s fallen asleep. Picking her up, he carries her to her bedroom and tucks her in. Using a spell to magically change her into her favorite pajamas. He removes the reality-turner from her neck. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There’s a dark part of him that wants to destroy it but he can’t bear to make her sad. He can’t be selfish with her anymore. Not if he ever wants her back. Instead he puts it away in the jewelry box she keeps on top of her dresser. She will return to him, each time. Today was proof of that. He can afford to let her find her own path in developing her magic. Walking back into the kitchen, Solomon sighs at all the food he's made. It's far too much, it'll spoil before he and Lily can eat it all. Then he has a brilliant idea, writing out a note in his elegant handwriting he teleports a large portion of his cooking straight to the dining room table at the House of Lamentation. He smiles, feeling satisfied before he cleans up the kitchen with a few cleaning spells. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span><br/>In the morning Solomon finds breakfast waiting for him at the table. Lily has used her little stay-fresh spell on his plate. But Lily herself is nowhere to be found. At first he’s worried she’s already gone back to the other reality. But he finds her inside the workroom, head down, scratching down notes as she visually and aromatically inspects the potion that was given to her by his counterpart. He smiles to see her hard at work already, she never could stand to let a good mystery sit undisturbed. Deciding not to disturb her, he returns to his breakfast.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily has been hard at work decoding the potion that the other Solomon gave her all morning. She’s already made a long list of what the potion definitely isn’t just based on the color and odor. Now she’s working on trying to draw out individual ingredients and properties. It’s a delicate process, but she’s confident that once she can pinpoint a few key ingredients she’ll be able to hypothesis and then test. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hours later Solomon rushes into the workroom when he hears some sort of scream coming from the workroom. He’s relieved to find it was a shout of success from his apprentice when he enters the room. A rare occurrence for his normally quiet Lily. She beams at him, holding out her hand that is alight with flame, but her flesh is perfectly protected. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Leila invented this potion, can you imagine?” She beams at him proudly. Proud that she got her assignment completed, or proud for having a friend like Leila? Solomon can’t tell, but he feels happy for his Lily no matter what the case is. “I got it all written down, so we can replicate it now too. Do you want to help me make some for ourselves?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Solomon grins. “Of course, let’s do that, Lily.” He teases her a bit. “This way we won’t have to use oven mitts anymore…”<br/><br/><br/></span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Breakfast at Lily’s</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The Avatars have arrived in the Human World and James decides to pay Lily's reality a visit to meet with her demons.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It's already the final chapter for this Part! <br/>As always, if you have questions about any of our characters, just ask them. :D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He’s been back with his demons for two days now. And it has been chaos like always. James loves it! Tomorrow Leila will return from the Celestial Realm with her baby! He can barely wait! It’s been so long! James is feeling particularly restless this morning. He’s up at the crack of dawn and decides to just make a start on breakfast for later. Breakfast. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Lily must be with her demons now too,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he thinks. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Since our lives are more or less parallel…</span>
  </em>
  <span> Suddenly an idea hit him! He’s going to have breakfast with Lily! </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He rushes to his room to get his DDD and Leila’s reality-turner. After he quickly scribbled a note that he sticks on the half-finished breakfast preparation in the kitchen, he goes back to the dining table. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Let’s see…</span>
  </em>
  <span> He thinks. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Lucifer sits here… The twins over there… Satan and Asmo here… Mammon and Levi over there… I sit usually here, so hopefully Lily does too… That means… </span>
  </em>
  <span>He sits down on one of the empty seats around the large table, hoping he guessed right and doesn’t end up on someone’s lap.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He spins the timer and doesn’t forget to count this time. 4 hours. He wants some good quality time with Lily’s demons, without overstaying his welcome too much. Knowing Lucifer, one hour might already be too much. He chuckles. “Ready or not, Lily’s demons.” He ‘warns’ them with a cheeky grin. “Here I come!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oy, James!” He can just hear Mammon, before he disappears. “What’re ya do-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is it, Mammon?” Lucifer asks his younger brother exasperated, as he’s just coming down the stairs and hears him curse in the dining room. “It’s too early for that kind of language.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ya wouldn’t believe it, Lucifer!” Mammon throws his hands up and stomps towards the kitchen. “James just disappeared on us!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” Lucifer follows him to the kitchen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There they see the half-finished breakfast that James had started and abandoned. And the note. Mammon snatches it up and curses some more after reading it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dammit!” He shoves the note in Lucifer’s face, who has a hard time to stop himself from strangling his brother for that. “Looks like he won’t be back for a while!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer reads the letter and feels irritation swirling inside him: Here they are, finally back together with their human, and he just decides to have breakfast with someone else? He knows he can’t control James like he can control his brothers, but punishment will be waiting for him when he returns!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rest of that morning, Lucifer is in an extremely foul mood and his brothers all avoid him like the plague. They all feel a bit annoyed by James’ sudden disappearance as well.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>Meanwhile…</b>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Somehow Mammon and Belphie had been put on breakfast duty this morning which is always a disastrous combination. So Lily has taken it upon herself to make sure some real food makes it to the table. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Belphie.” Lily sighs and snaps her fingers, he’s falling asleep standing up again. “Come on. Take these to the table please.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He accepts with a sleepy yawn. “Why are mornings so early in the Human World?” He complains as he slowly as a snail shuffles to the dining room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily shakes her head as she watches him go. Well, at least he came out of the bed this time to help. She turns to Mammon. “Mammon don’t forget to grab the syrup and whipped cream.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I still dunno why ya won’t lemme spice this stuff up a bit, Lily…” Mammon complains as well, but follows his brother, WITH the whipped cream and syrup and without the hot sauce.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily rolls her eyes as she follows them with her own hands full. She honestly will never understand these demons, no matter how much she loves them.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, hey!” They hear someone greet when they walk into the dining room with breakfast. They almost drop everything to the floor. Someone is sitting at their table! Filling up his plate like he belongs there!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James!” Lily cheers, quickly putting everything she’s holding on the edge of the table, leaving it to the others to set the table. “What a surprise!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I figured that you must be with your demons now too, so I was curious, of course.” James grins broadly. “And I have some news as well!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course you were!” Lily laughs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They hug each other tightly. It’s been a couple of months since they were able to see each other. Each of their Solomons keep them extremely busy. They both don’t notice how behind them seven demons gather, looking warily to the strange human man, embracing their Lily. Though he does seem familiar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>*ahem* </span>
  </em>
  <span>That’s definitely Lucifer. When James looks up, he looks straight in the dark ruby eyes he’s so familiar with. But ho boy! Do they look at him with some hostile suspicion! Just like they looked at him when he first arrived in the Devildom. James can’t help laughing by the memory of it! Which kinda only makes things worse, of course.</span>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily helps him out when she sees Lucifer’s eyes narrowing dangerously. “Lucifer, this is my very dear friend James! You’ve heard of him, remember?” She makes introductions. “I hope you’ll make him feel welcome here.” she says, her eyes large and pleading. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer relents after looking into Lily’s eyes. “Welcome James, please make yourself at home.” he says before taking his own seat. His voice might be a bit disingenuous but Lily beams at him anyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily makes more introductions as the rest of her demons file into the dining room and they all settle around the breakfast table.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, you’re either an idiot or fearless.” Satan says to James when Lucifer is out of earshot. “Laughing in his face like you did.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I like it.” Belphegor smirks. “I bet you’re a good member of the Formerly Anti-Lucifer League in your reality.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve had some good laughs, yeah.” James grins cheekily. Ignoring Lucifer’s glare from across the table, who definitely heard them talking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I heard my other self is your lover in your reality?” Beelzebub asks him after taking a big bite of his food, looking curiously into James eyes. Lily almost chokes on her food along with a few other demons at the table. She knew Beelzebub could be frank but geesh!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James grins, taking a big bite himself, while the rest of the table is silent in surprise by Beelzebubs sudden talkative behaviour during breakfast. “Yup, that’s right.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm…” Beelzebub nods. “Yeah… I guess I can see why.” With that he puts some extra food on James' plate and continues chewing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wh...Whaaaat?!” Asmodeus exclaims as the first of his brothers in reaction to that. “You just say that to him? Who are you, Beel?” Beelzebub just shrugs and continues eating and James grins.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily can’t help giggling. It’s a good thing James is so open and easy going. Glancing over at Lucifer she can see him studying James. Lucifer narrows his eyes at Lily when he catches her staring at him. She merely gives him one of her smiles. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>”So James.” Lily starts. “You said you have news?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James beams proudly at her. Her demons suddenly see a lot of resemblance with Leila. “Yeah! You know, Leila’s baby was born 9 days ago!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, my gosh!” Lily flies from her seat to hug James again. “Congratulations!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Pfft!” Mammon laughs at Lily. “It’s not like HE had the baby.” he teases her. Lily ignores him and focuses on James.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So?” Lily sits now next to James. “What did she name her? How is Leila doing? Do you have pictures? When does she come back from the Celestial Realm?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lily.” Lucifer’s voice comes sternly from the other side of the table. “You might want to give James the chance to answer your questions.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right.” Lily ducks her chin and blushes a bit. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it Lily.” James laughs, undermining Lucifer’s authority again. “If you reacted any other way than happy, I would have been disappointed.” He takes out his DDD, that he had brought for this reason, and shows her all the pictures that Leila had sent him in the past days. “Her name is Pandora. The labor was hard for her, but she went through it without complications. And she will be coming home tomorrow!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tomorrow?!” Lily cheers. “Oh, I’m going to visit you guys soon, James! You better prepare your demons.” She already has a million thoughts and ideas running through her head. She hasn’t felt this excited for a while now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lily!” Lucifer tries sternly again, but he is completely ignored as all his brothers crowd around Lily, who is holding James DDD. He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. He supposes it’s fine that his brothers are enthused with the news about Leila. Mammon, Satan and Belphegor were especially nervous about the whole thing. But why are both these humans from that other reality so disruptive? The boy’s even more of a whirlwind than some of his brothers, it seems. He can’t imagine what his counterpart sees in him. Though that’s not entirely true. He is intriguing and he has that same sort of soul that Lily has.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What a beautiful baby!” Asmo coos. “I can tell Pandora will grow up to be a real knockout like her mother.” he states confidently. Then, hands on hip, he looks at Lily. “When are you going to settle down with a handsome demon and have a beautiful baby of your own, Lily?” he half teases her. “You know I’m always willing to make a donation if you want your own little nephilim.” he winks. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily blushes bright red and smacks Asmo away from her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Over my dead body!” Mammon growls protectively, further pushing Asmo out of the group. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh, Mammon!” Asmodeus huffs and flicks his hair. “If that is what it takes…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’re about to launch into a fight but Lily quickly commands them to behave. They have a guest, after all! After everything is settled again, they focus on the pictures once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lily said you have a video where Leila sings…” Belphegor didn’t want to ask about it, not really. But he can’t help himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I have plenty of those!” James laughs at him. “But you probably mean the one where she lets everyone know the gender of the baby?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean, If you don’t mind…” Belphegor shrugs, trying to act disinterested. “Whatever…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily pulls Bephie towards her in an awkward side hug, considering he’s standing and she’s still sitting in her chair. “Oh yes! Please play it for everyone.” Lily says with the enthusiasm that Belphegor is unwilling to display. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure, I don’t mind.” James smiles kindly to him looking for the video. “I’m sure, if there was a way, Leila would have sent the video to Lily too, after all.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He starts the video up and everyone is quietly listening. Asmodeus is swooning over Leila’s voice openly, but Lily sees that everyone is pleased to listen to it and watch the video. Belphegor is smiling with his eyes glued to the screen, now that he thinks nobody is watching him. So are Mammon and Satan. After James plays the video everyone settles back down to finish breakfast before Beel eats everything. James patiently answers everyone’s questions about Leila and the baby over the meal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer watches to his secret amusement how Lily and James suddenly seem to have the same idea on what they want to eat next. Lily casts a forcefield spell over the plate with pancakes that Beelzebub was just reaching out to claim for himself. It isn’t that powerful yet, Lucifer notices, but it is enough for temporarily repelling Beelzebub from grabbing it. And that is enough for James to cast a levitation spell over the plate and draw it towards himself and Lily, who still sits next to him. They grin at each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s share this, Lily.” James suggests as he catches the plate from the air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily smiles. “Thank you, that would be nice.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She casts a levitation spell on the whipped cream and draws it out of reach from Beelzebub as well, while James in the meantime draws in syrup and fruit. Gathering everything around their plates, he casts a forcefield around it now as well. Everyone else at the table is watching with fascination how the two young apprentices keep pulling away food from Beelzebub they want to eat themselves, while Beelzebub is watching them, getting sadder with the second.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you like on your pancakes?” James asks, while plating himself some with several types of fruits and a royal amount of cream.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I have some with syrup.” Lily answers and watches how James plates some for her with care and adds some syrup.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What would you like on your pancakes?” James asks again, but this time… “Beel?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Beelzebubs sad abandoned puppy expression disappears as sun in the snow, while he watches how James makes the rest of the plate for him with everything he requested. Then he accepts the plate from him with a beaming smile and scarfs everything down in mere seconds. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well…” Lily says, blinking at her demon. It takes some getting used to again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“At least we saved some for ourselves.” James shrugs, holding up his hand for a high five. “How have the last past months been with studying?” He asks her around a mouthful, just like Beelzebub often does and Lily giggles at the look of disdain from Lucifer. But she notices he’s interested in their answers. “I noticed your forcefield has become stronger.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It has!” Lily beams proudly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But I bet you can’t blast someone away like Leila can?” Belphegor asks curiously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, I think it mostly feels like a shock. </span>
  <span>At most I can nudge or push you away gently</span>
  <span>.” Lily answers him. “But we only just learned it a few months ago, so…” She shrugs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Leila has been studying magic from a young age.” James shrugs as well. “We can't compare ourselves with that. Oh, did you know that Solomon gave me her spellbook?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Apparently she has been writing her own spells that she invented herself in a book since she was ten.” James tells her, and everyone else who is listening, which is everyone else. “There's some pretty impressive stuff in there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“An authentic spellbook from a sorcerer?” Satan sounds interested. “Those are hard to come by…” Lily suspects he would want to have a look in a book like that himself. “Original spells from sorcerers are only taught to their relatives.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Which is me.” James laughs. “Anyway, Belphie told me that not all sorcerers are having a talent for inventing spells. But you have, right Lily?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily looks at him with her big eyes. “Oh um…” </span>
  <span>She blushes modestly, she’s dabbled but she wouldn’t claim to have a real talent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, you invented that keep-it-yummy spell.” James continues. “My Solomon knew nothing about a spell like that. So anyway… I’m going to try to make a book like that as well, but all I can show for myself right now is my Solomon-food-vanishing spell.” He grins cheekily at her now. “You should make a book as well, Lily! For when you have kids of your own...”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oi! Whaddya mean kids?! There ain’t somethin’ ya need to tell us, is there?!” Mammon shouts, completely taking what James said out of context. </span>
  <span>And looking at James’ grin, this was exactly what he was expecting.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“Ooh, who’s the lucky father?” Asmodeus coos. He knows his little flower isn’t pregnant but he can’t help riling Mammon up further. </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“You mean who’s the dead man?!” Mammon growls at Asmodeus. Giving him a suspicious look. Sighs and rolling eyes go around the table.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>“What’s a keep-it-yummy spell?” Beelzebub wants to know. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James and Lily laugh. “No spell you need to learn Beel.” James says with a broad smile. “You eat all your food in one go, I don’t think you’d have a use for it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Isn’t it funny that we both created our first spells under the duress of having to live with Solomon and deal with his cooking?” Lily giggles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James laughs. “We’re just having the best teacher, don’t we? It immediately activated our survival skills.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“HEY! Are y’all gonna ignore me or what?!” Mammon shouts as everyone around the table moves on with their own conversations. Lily finally turns to him and pats his hand. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James was just referring to the future. The far far future.” she reassures him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mammon settles into his seat again. “Fine..Just remember you gotta get my permission first if ya ever want to get knocked up.” He continues to grumble something about his rights and duties as her first demon. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily exchanges an eye roll with James, who finds it all too amusing. They fall back into easy conversation about their studies until Lily notices how quiet Levi has been all this time. He’s not even playing games, just sitting there looking sullen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s wrong Levi?” Lily asks, she notices the way he perks up when she speaks to him but tries hard to hide it.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Levi glances between James and Lily. “James seems nice and all but you promised to hang out after breakfast.” he grumbles. “You’re obviously not going to do that now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course I will.” Lily tells him. “James can join us.” Levi gives her an uncertain look. James just looks like a normie. He has to be if he’s lovers with Beel and Lucifer of all people in the other reality. “I promise, it’ll be more fun with James!”</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Levi is pulling costumes out of his closet, when he sighs. “We can’t do our TSL skit with James, we’ll have to think of something else.” he says to them, sounding mildly irritated or disappointed. It’s so hard to tell sometimes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not?” Lily asks. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Levi rolls his eyes, “Because you can’t both be Henry! And I bet James always plays Henry with his own..me…” Levi shakes himself, as if the thought disturbs him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re right.” James confirms. “But I don’t mind playing a different character! </span>
  <span>Leila sometimes plays the Lord of Fools and it is hilarious...</span>
  <span>” he says cheerfully. </span>
  <span>Lily and Leviathan look up a bit surprised by that mention. They can’t really imagine Leila doing this.</span>
  <span> “Oh! You know. I’ve always wanted to play the Lord of Corruption!” he tells Levi with a mischievous look on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Levi’s brows raise high. “Really? Hmm. Well..I guess that would be ok..”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Going back into his closet he rummages around. “I still have Lucifer’s costume from the play.” Levi pulls out the full Lord of Corruption outfit and hands it to James. “Hopefully it fits.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It doesn’t take long for the three of them to change and get into character. Soon their antics take them out of Levi’s room and into the planetarium.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t let you stand in my way any longer, Lord of Shadow. So join me or stand aside.” James is doing his best Lucifer voice and Lily is having a hard time staying in character, but she knows Levi will get pissed if she starts giggling. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I cannot allow you to destroy my Kingdom with your dastardly plans.” Levi counters. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lord of Corruption I know you’re suffering, but surely we can find a peaceful resolution?” Lily plays the ever mediating Henry. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Enough!” James raises his hand. Lily and Leviathan are both surprised when James uses some real magic to bind Levi’s wrists and produce a smoke bomb type effect to go off between them and Lily.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily coughs and steps back, she can’t see anything but she can hear them on the other side of the smoke screen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are you doing?! Are you crazy?!” Lily hears Levi hiss, breaking character.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>James laughs, “Come on! It’s all part of the game! Let’s go back to your room.” Lily hears him clear his voice before he gets back into character. “Henry, you’ll meet my demands or else you’ll never see your precious Lord of Shadow again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>By the time the smoke clears Lily has finally gotten over her giggling fit. Leave it to James to surprise them both. He’s such a troublemaker! </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily makes her way back to Levi’s room. Where James waits for her, looking haughty and proud while Levi is kneeling on the floor, still tied up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dear Henry! My True friend! It’s too late for me. Alas, you must flee and survive without me!” Levi says dramatically.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll never give up on you, my Lord!” Lily says while James grins wickedly at her, placing his sword against the Lord of Shadow’s neck. She draws her sword. “I don’t want to fight you, but if you won’t release my Lord then you leave me no choice!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have it your way then.” James pulls his own sword away from Leviathan and they commence having the sword fight scene that they played with Lucifer during the TSL play. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Levi is watching them as if it’s the best thing he’s ever witnessed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily let’s her seriousness in the role drop when James gives her the perfect opening to whack him across his butt with the flat of her wooden play sword. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ouch!” James laughs. Lily giggles. Levi growls at them to keep in character.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily gives James the finishing blow from the play. James falls to one knee dramatically, letting his own sword drop. “What cruel reality is this? You’ve wounded not only my pride, but my bum as well.” he says doing a great Lucifer voice. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lily loses it and even Levi has a hard time not laughing. Until they hear someone clear their voice behind them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Lucifer is standing there looking as intimidating and imperious as ever. James gives him a cheeky grin and begins to say something but they never get to hear it because he vanishes from their reality.  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The costume!” Levi laments.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry.” Lily tells him. “We’ll get it back the next time I see him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m glad to see that you two have so much free time on your hands, you can afford to run amok around the manor, mocking me.” Lucifer says with deceptive calm, his arms crossed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James didn’t mean anything by it Lucifer.” Lily tells him, she’s still smiling. It's hard to get her straight face back on, after the fun they just had. “He adores you...er...the other you, anyway.” she laughs. “It’s just a bit of fun.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh? It’s fun you’re looking for? I see...” Lucifer smiles back, but in a way that usually just creeps everyone out. Lily and Levi know they’re in trouble.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh oh..” Levi mutters, bracing himself for whatever sadistic revenge Lucifer will employ.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In one smooth movement Lucifer flips Lily over his shoulder, causing her to yelp in surprise. “Since the main offender has absconded, I suppose you’ll have to be punished in his stead, little flower.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh, just punish me instead!” Levi says. “I’m the one who wanted to play after all…”</span>
  <span></span>
    <br/>
  
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
  <span>Lily shakes her head at Levi from her upside down position. Lucifer looks over his shoulder at his brother. “I suppose you deserve some punishment as well.” Lucifer grabs Levi by the collar and drags him behind as well. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tossing Levi out on the back patio he tells him to make himself useful by cleaning the pool. Lily is carried off to his office where she’s tickled until she cries out and begs for mercy. Then he cruelly keeps her the rest of the day away from his brothers, helping with paperwork that’s been sent over from the Devildom. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s still not going to keep me from seeing James and Leila.” Lily tells Lucifer with a cheeky smile when the day is finished and Lucifer lets her go. Then she has to rush to her room to hide, because it looks like Lucifer is going to go after her again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Those kids are trouble.” Lucifer says to himself as he sits back in his seat. But he lets himself smile about it, now that nobody sees him. “But maybe they’re good for Lily too.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>James is mid speech when he pops back into Levi’s room in his own reality. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“D’AAAAAH!” Levi yelps, getting killed in the game he’s currently playing when James suddenly appears. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James! You killed me! In the game and almost IRL too!” he accuses him. “How did you get that costume?! Have you been cheating on me?!” he says dramatically, jumping up from his chair. “You have! You’ve been cosplaying in the other reality!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, calm down Levi!” James laughs and is in two steps with his friend. “Don’t get all upset. I’ve been practicing in the other reality and now we can do it in this reality even better!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You think?” Leviathan searches the face of ‘his Henry’ to see if he’s not lying, but he can’t detect any subterfuge. “Yeah! It would be better with us, right? Since I know you better than they do!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Exactly.” James tells him. “And because of this practice, I have so many new ideas for us to cosplay…” He tries to struggle out of his costume. “We need Leila to play with us, of course…” He says, with his cape half over his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>*ahem* </span>
  </em>
  <span>Lucifer happened to be nearby when Levi screamed, so with a sigh he went to investigate. Walking into Levi’s room he hears his brother hysterically accusing James of cheating and James is standing there in his Lord of Corruption outfit. Unsurprisingly, James knows how to wrap him around his finger in no-time and calms him down, even makes him enthusiastic for one idea or another. All the while trying to get out of the costume. Lucifer is still in a bad mood about James just leaving them that morning, but seeing his lover back in one piece and laughing, does make him feel relieved.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“James.” Lucifer tells him sternly. “Come to my room, immediately. So we can discuss your punishment for skipping breakfast.” James looks up from being tangled in the costume. “Don’t bother with that in Levi’s room. I’m sure I can help you with that…” Lucifer gives James one of his special looks and sees it still working as James instantly starts blushing. Laughing loudly he turns around and goes to his room to wait on James.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh-oh…” Leviathan says, worried for his friend. “Are you going to be okay?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But James grins unconcerned. “Yeah, I’m going to be fine Levi. Don't worry.” James puts his costume on proper again and says. “Now, I gotta go, but we will talk about our own cosplay soon, okay?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With that, he hurries after Lucifer, leaving Leviathan behind who rolls his eyes. “Ugh, normies…” He scoffs, starting up his game again.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>We hope you enjoyed our little adventure where Lily, James and Leila met and became friends! <br/>We planned to have another chapter for this Part, but it grew so HUGE, that we decided to make that a Part 3. So, if you enjoyed this, look forward to that! Because it's going to be another FUN one! Haha!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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